JINGWAH Times reporter Hao Shaoying
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I do not know from when, on the Beijing China World Trade Center Heng Hui Road, near the ideal International Building in Zhongguancun, and other office intensive areas. One after another out of the office of the white collar out of the white collar.
don't know, and think of which company's commuter bus, in fact, behind these big buses, they are a new Internet Co. The services they offer are the other alternative to Internet travel, such as special cars, express cars, carpooling, and other Internet trips.
"no longer envy other people's company's shuttle bus", Ms. Wang, who lives in Tongzhou orchard, recalls the mood of her first attempt at the Internet shuttle bus. As a member of tens of millions of office workers in Beijing, the most painful thing for every day is commuting, especially the morning and evening peak. According to her description, her district is not far from the orchard subway station, but if you want to go to a company in Wangjing, you need to transfer to the three subway. "There are no seats or more people. When you transfer, you have to wait two or three times to get on the bus."
has reported that commuting time in Beijing ranks first in the country with an average of 97 minutes. But for people living in Yanjiao, they spend four hours a day on the road.
it is the pain point of the commuters' trip to work. Since last year, more and more Internet start-ups have begun to enter the field of Internet buses. The Internet bus platform, such as cloud bus and click bus, has developed rapidly and has a certain user base. In July this year, as a taxi tycoon's dripping travel also launched a drop bus, opened a "direct bus" business, and in mid October formally in "drop trip" APP line. So far, the competition of Internet shuttle buses has entered the stage of white heat.
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homogenization of serious competition aggravated
because the rise time is not too long, Internet bus is still in the stage of training users, in order to compete for the market, the company is also a fist. The reporter found that the Internet bus routes and prices on the market are similar. At present, Internet bus stations are mainly concentrated in Zhongguancun, Tian Tong Yuan, Huilongguan, Wangjing, China World Trade Center and other regions. The main cause of the fierce competition between the various bus companies is highly synthesized by the route.
with the intensification of competition, the shuttle buses between different companies have also had disputes because of robbing passengers. At the end of July this year, there was an Internet bus dispute in front of the South Gate of the ideal International Building in Zhongguancun. According to the person in charge of one of the bus companies, the company's bus was blocked by another company staff before the bus came out on the night, causing the bus to leave the bus. Zhongguancun west police station staff confirmed that the night received the police said, "traffic jams cause disputes between the two sides".
industry insiders say that because there are many Internet companies in Zhongguancun and many white-collar workers engaged in the Internet industry, users have a high acceptance of popular Internet technology products, thus becoming "the place for war" in the Internet bus industry.
reporter in the ride experience also found a lot of trouble, such as the first time to ride the car difficult to find a car, because the Internet bus does not have a station card, the driver can not call the passengers, only by passengers to find. In addition, the Internet shuttle bus can not occupy the bus lane, and can not fundamentally avoid traffic jam and traffic jam.
identity fuzzy legitimacy to be determined
the legalization of the car is still to be solved, the legitimacy of the Internet bus seems to have not been put on the agenda, the state has not yet issued relevant policies to clear the Internet bus industry. However, according to the regulations of the road transport in Beijing, the units and individuals engaged in the operation of road transportation should obtain corresponding operating permits according to the procedures and conditions stipulated in the laws and regulations. Drivers of road passenger and freight transport must obtain corresponding qualification to engage in corresponding road transport activities.
according to the reporters, most of the Internet bus companies hire professional passenger transport vehicles and employ professional passenger drivers from labor dispatching companies. Li Jinfei, the general manager of the public transport department, said that all the cars on the bus are currently working with local qualified travel companies to ensure the legitimacy of the vehicle. "Every new travel plan or project, and the policy needs a process of grinding." We also judge the boundary of the project in the course of the project. According to Li Jinfei, the dripping bus has been communicating with the local transportation department, the existing policy space is relatively loose, so the operation is not affected by the policy.
up to now, the attitude of the regulatory authorities on the Internet shuttle bus is also wait-and-see and research, and there is no clear attitude for the time being.
industry experts believe that the vehicles of the Internet bus actually have operational qualifications, but only through the software platform. In this process, the vehicle is legal, and the software itself is not illegal. Moreover, it is a useful attempt for Internet companies to make use of idle passenger bus resources to supplement urban public transport.
2013 launched a customized shuttle bus service in October in Shanghai, a website called "Tong Tong Ba", but it suspended service after two months of operation. At that time, the management department said that as long as the site maintained the form of dot - to - point vehicle, not to stop in the middle, and the rental vehicle had national qualifications, it would not interfere with its business development.
the difficulty of financing the difficult and easy to die
the rise of Internet bus companies is largely due to the support of funds. In September, only a number of companies announced financing. In September 9th, my cloud class car announced the Pre-A round of Pre-A round investment; in September 15th, the Dudu bus from Shenzhen announced the completion of 52 million yuan A and A round financing; in September 29th, the dudd bus completed nearly two hundred million yuan B round financing. In September 11th, Didi announced that it would invest 500 million yuan to develop the bus business.
however, it seems that once the financial support is lost, the entrepreneurial Internet bus enterprises will hardly survive on their own development. Founded in March this year, the Kola bus stopped operation on the line for only 6 months. Aman Chang, the founder of the company, believes that the capital market is the only factor affecting the operation of the koala bus, which is simply a failure of the company's new round of financing.
industry people said that for the Internet bus enterprises, in the early phase of the line promotion, not only need preferential subsidies to attract users, the daily vehicle operation costs more need a huge capital investment. Without a reliable business model, no new financing obviously makes the customized bus operation difficult to sustain.
according to the reporter, the koala bus was invested in a month after the establishment of the koala bus, but it did not get any financing. At present, the business of the koala bus has been taken over by the drop bus. Its team has turned to start business again.
in fact, more than one company left from the Internet bus field, bus service was introduced easily in March this year, but the market dropped out for only three months.
it is not easy to make money but it is not easy to make money, but it is not easy to
although the demand for the Internet bus is very big, it does hit the pain point of the commuter travel, but it is not an easy to make money.
clatter bus has previously disclosed that the price of a rental bus is 700 yuan / day. The Internet bus company charged at least 14 yuan per person per day to offset the cost of renting a bus, according to a bus with a certified number of 51 people, which is not a cost to drivers and fuel.
but at present, most of the Internet bus fares are charged according to the length of the lines, ranging from a few yuan to more than ten yuan. At the same time, the shuttle bus company also introduced preferential subsidy policy, such as 1 cents to take a shuttle bus, etc., so as to draw passengers.
can be seen from the sudden death of the Kola squad on the line for half a year. The Internet shuttle bus has no definite way of making profits at present. In communication with a number of Internet bus companies, the reporter found that many enterprises are mainly concerned with the user experience, line design and service, profit model and so on are not very clear. Most of them want the pain point of high frequency demand from the above commute as the entrance attraction flow, and after the user accumulates to a certain stage, it explores all possible profit models.
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change travel or custom bus
it may be a discovery that only the car market is unsustainable, and many start-up Internet bus companies have turned into a bus after a period of operation, including clatter, harrow, and my cloud bus. "
" commuter bus market is only the tip of the iceberg in the hundreds of billions of Internet custom buses, and the future drop bus is not only focused on the commuter bus market, but will try to further differentiate travel scenes. Li Jinfei said.
at the end of October this year, only 3 months' drop bus launched a tourist line, the reporter learned that the drop bus has more than 50 travel lines on the line during the "eleven" golden week, and the seat rate is over 80%. Besides the dripping buses, Dudu bus and clatter bus have also carried out the peripheral tour business.
apart from peripheral travel, airport express, intercity passenger transport and custom chartered cars are also the direction that these companies are involved in or considering. Reporters noted that "double 11" the same day, dripping bus on WeChat platform said that the upcoming chartered service. Clatter bus CEO Zhou Ruijin recently also said that, in addition to work, the clatter bus will continue to expand the service range, including the surrounding tour, the direct traffic, the chartered car and other business.
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simple bus business is not easy to survive
the current domestic Internet bus market is in the primary stage, most of which are start-up projects within the A wheel. The maximum amount of financing is tens of millions of RMB, team, product, technology and so on need to be improved.
Hong Bo, an Internet analyst, said that Internet traffic needs to be market by subsidies in the early stage, which requires enterprises to have a good financing capacity and the ability to open up the market, and the enterprises lacking this ability are generally difficult to complete the establishment of their business models. "Before the business model is set up, it will be difficult to get financing without financing, which is why the operation of the Kola bus has been completed for half a year."
there is a view that capital market began to be cautious in this area after the start of the bus project. Hong Bo said, "the drop is really strong in financing and market, and provides a comprehensive travel platform, so users will be more inclined to use such a APP, even if the bus business does not make money, and the future relies on other business to supplement it." In Hong Bo's view, the simple Internet bus business financing and survival pressure will be relatively large, "the current market competition is fierce, no subsidies to the user is less, the subsidy more enterprises can not carry".
for a number of current Internet bus companies to explore and open up a particular field of market, Hong Bo thought that these markets were blank or inadequate in the past, but it was not a chance to say, "some markets have a certain demand but have not been met for a certain reason. It has been noted that it may be due to economic or certain reasons that this market even if there is demand, no one is willing to meet. "