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"Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" August 19th (Reporter Ao Jin Tang Zhixiao)The founder of the "big brother" of shared charging and related investors were suddenly reported to be missing.

On August 18, media reported that Yuan Bingsong, the founder of Shenzhen Lai Dian Technology Co., Ltd., had "lost contact" recently. Also missing at the same time were Han Bing, the first person to take over Lai Dian Technology, and four other people related to Lai Dian Technology.

The reason for the “disappearance” may be related to the loss of state-owned assets in cooperation with the state-owned assets of Pujiang County, Zhejiang Province. It is reported that the two were previously held accountable by the legal team hired by the local state-owned assets for the loss of state-owned assets.

On the afternoon of August 18, a reporter from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily visited the office address shown on Lai Dian Technology's official website. An informed person at the scene said that Lai Dian Technology had moved out of the office building as early as the first half of last year, but the person did not disclose the reason for the move.It is said that many users who were unable to return their power banks normally had come to this office to seek solutions.

On the evening of August 18, according to the Beijing News, Yuan Bingsong posted a circle of friends saying, "God is fair and everything that happens is the best arrangement. Follow your conscience, act according to your heart, don't do evil, and God will bless you!" People close to Yuan Bingsong said that the circle of friends was indeed posted by Yuan Bingsong himself.

Lai Dian Technology was founded in 2014 and is one of the earliest companies to enter the shared charging industry. In its early development stage, it received investments from institutions such as SIG, Red Dot China, and Jiuhe Venture Capital.

At its peak, Lai Dian Technology was expected to go public through a backdoor listing, but the deal was ultimately terminated because Han Bing, the first buyer, failed to pay the final payment. At the end of 2020, the state-owned assets of Pujiang County, Zhejiang Province, extended an olive branch to Lai Dian Technology, and Pujiang Lai Dian Zhengqi Technology Co., Ltd., which was the main investor, became the 100% controlling shareholder of Lai Dian Technology.

After years of rapid development, Lai Dian Technology gradually fell into trouble, facing a series of problems such as lawsuits from suppliers and agents, and account freezes. This also reflects that the once booming shared charging industry is facing the dilemma of business model.

Zhejiang state-owned assets bet on the veteran of shared charging

Industrial and commercial information shows that at present, the only controlling shareholder of Lai Dian Technology is Pujiang Lai Dian Zhengqi Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Pujiang Zhengqi"). If we look into the equity structure, we can see that the main shareholder behind Pujiang Zhengqi is the state-owned assets of Pujiang County, Zhejiang Province.

According to the industrial and commercial change records, Pujiang Zhengqi officially became the controlling shareholder of Laidian Technology in December 2020. Zhejiang State-owned Assets' shareholding in Laidian Technology increased from less than 7% to wholly owned controlling stake, and the original three major shareholders including Han Bing withdrew.

At that time, Lai Dian Technology also issued a notice on its official website.The "official announcement" stated that the company's business contract signing entity, funds collection/payment entity, etc. were all changed from Shenzhen Laidian to Pujiang Zhengqi.

The Pujiang County government, which has made a full investment in Lai Dian Technology, later made a public statement on its official website. An article published by the county government office titled "The county's project breakthrough site meeting proposed that project breakthrough is the main battlefield of economic work" mentioned thatLai Dian Technology is the first project attracted by Pujiang County using the "fund + equity + project" model.

The article also stated, "In recent years, Pujiang County has always put 'industrially strong county' as the top priority of county strategic development, vigorously carried out the three major tough year activities of 'business environment, project attraction, and innovative development', and achieved new breakthroughs in investment attraction and project toughness, especially in 2020, attracting 52 projects throughout the year, including 32 projects with a value of more than 100 million yuan."

Just before Pujiang Zhengqi took over, Lai Dian Technology had sought to go public through a backdoor listing.

January 2020,Zhongwei Electronics, a GEM-listed company, announced that it plans to transfer 9.07% of its shares to Han Bing, the legal representative of Shenzhen Laidian Technology. After the transfer is completed, Han Bing will become a shareholder of Zhongwei Electronics with a shareholding of more than 5%.“

The purpose of the above-mentioned cooperation between the two parties is mainly that both parties hope to establish a long-term strategic cooperative relationship with Zhongwei Electronics through this equity transfer. "However, the transaction was ultimately terminated in April 2020 because Han Bing "failed to raise sufficient funds for the equity transfer."

In fact, the period when Lai Dian Technology frequently carried out capital operations was also a few years when the entire shared charging industry was developing rapidly.

Also in 2020, according to the Zhejiang Securities Regulatory Bureau website, Xiaodian Technology began to receive listing guidance and seek to be listed on the Growth Enterprise Market. Meituan also entered the shared charging market for the third time in a high-profile manner that year, established a special team, and began large-scale recruitment. In April 2021, Monster Charging successfully landed on Nasdaq, raising nearly 1 billion yuan, becoming the first stock in the shared charging industry.

But soon, beneath the surface of capital chasing and booming development in the shared charging industry, the dilemma began to emerge.

Tianyancha information shows that since 2020, Lai Dian Technology has been involved in 77 lawsuits due to contract disputes such as entrustment, joint ventures, labor, and sales. The plaintiffs involved include Lai Dian Technology’s co-founders, early agents, suppliers, and employees. Among them, this year Lai Dian Technology has 24 lawsuits, the most in history, and most of the cases are labor disputes and contract disputes.

At the same time, Lai Dian Technology's market share has also been declining. According to a brokerage research report, as early as 2020, Lai Dian Technology's market share had already begun to lag far behind Monster Charging, Jiedian and Xiaodian, with only less than 10%.

It is worth mentioning that in August 2023, Yuan Bingsong, the founder of Lai Dian Technology and the protagonist of this loss of contact, also accepted a high-profile media interview. In the interview, he said that he had previously "lost all the shares of Lai Dian" and "on August 18, 2021, I signed the agreement and lost all the shares of Lai Dian; but it was not until September 15, 2022 that I received my resignation certificate."

Yuan Bingsong also expressed his long-term optimism about the shared charging industry and stated that he would start a new business in the shared charging field. This second venture refers to Wukong Fast Charge, which he planned to build in October 2022. Regarding the development strategy of Wukong Fast Charge, he said, "There is no capital in the shared power bank market now, so in addition to product drive, which is only the foundation, business model innovation is more important."

Shared power banks are stuck in a rental model

Regarding the business model of shared charging companies mentioned by Yuan Bingsong, the reporter of Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily learned that the major shared charging companies on the market currently operate mainly through direct sales or agency models.

According to Monster Charging's 2024Q1 financial report, its revenue is still mainly from mobile phone power bank rental, accounting for more than 90% of its total revenue. Its business model is direct sales + agency. In the early days, it mainly expanded its locations through direct sales, directly connected with merchants and was responsible for the operation and maintenance of the locations, mostly used for high-end city development and key customer cooperation.

In order to quickly expand its business scope and cover more regions and scenarios, Monster Charging switched to a direct sales model and agent integration model. In this model, the company only connects with agents, who are responsible for merchant development, POI selection, contract negotiation and equipment maintenance. The company pays commissions to agents based on a certain percentage of the revenue from the cabinets placed by the agents.

A BD who previously worked for several shared power bank companies told the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily reporter: "Direct sales plus agents is the model adopted by most companies. Previously, the direct sales model was the main one. In the early days, in order to increase the coverage rate, some high-quality merchants were given an 'entry fee'. Then, under the direct sales model, if the revenue of the charging cabinet reaches a certain amount, it will be shared with the merchant. Now, only when a certain amount is reached will the merchant share the revenue."

The former BD added: "After switching to the agency model, each BD in the company will be responsible for a certain sales task of charging cabinets. The part that cannot be completed will be directly deducted from the BD's salary, or even directly fired. Therefore, many BDs at that time would buy charging cabinets themselves in order to complete the sales task of charging cabinets."

By shifting from direct sales to an agency model, shared power bank companies have passed on the loss and depreciation of fixed assets such as charging cabinets to agents, so they also need to offer a higher commission rate to attract agents to enter.

The reporter of the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily learned that most of the shared power bank companies mainly promote 6-hole and 12-hole cabinets. As long as you buy more than 5, you can become an agent of the company. According to data in Ping An of China's research report in May 2023, in order to motivate agents, shared power bank companies will pay 75%-95% commission to agents and merchants.

The BD told the reporter of the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that how to divide this part of the commission income between merchants and agents needs to be negotiated by both parties. "Under the agent model, the operation and maintenance of the charging cabinet is still the responsibility of the enterprise BD, which includes checking the health status of the power bank, whether the charging cabinet is online, and replenishing the charging cabinet."

An agent told the reporter of Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily: "The agent's purchase price for a shared power bank is between 15 and 30 yuan, and the cost of the enterprise will only be lower. We (agents) are only responsible for communicating with merchants to place power banks, and the restocking of power banks is the responsibility of the enterprise itself. Therefore, compared with 'power bank rental', the enterprise can earn more by letting users buy out a power bank."

The reporter of the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily learned that shared charging companies are currently recruiting "shared power bank distributors" from the society. The main responsibility of this position is to fill the empty slots in the charging cabinet in a timely manner. A job seeker who has applied for a distributor said, "Some recruitment supervisors require us to squat next to the charging cabinet and replenish the stock immediately when we see the power bank being rented out, and even encourage us to go to more shopping malls to replenish the stock. It is hard to say that this is a behavior that facilitates users, and it is more like forcing users to buy out these power banks in disguise."

In addition to power bank rental and trading services, shared power bank companies are also exploring new businesses, including:

Utilize the shared power bank network to connect with the consumer network and develop consumer product business. For example, Monster Power tried to incubate the new liquor brand "Kaihuan" internally in 2021;

To develop more smart hardware products, Zhumang Technology announced in 2021 that it plans to create at least three smart hardware flagship products in addition to shared power banks within three years, including unmanned retail, AED external defibrillator all-in-one and other smart hardware products;

To provide digital marketing solutions for merchants, Xiaodian Technology disclosed in its prospectus that it plans to enter into strategic cooperation with short video companies to provide short video and live streaming marketing solutions to partners and other merchants at the locations.

As of now, at least among the listed companies, Monster Charging's liquor sales business has not been able to replace the power bank rental business and become the "second growth" curve.

(Reporter Ao Jin from Cailianshe)