text: Wang Qian
ID: BMR2004
Image source: Visual China
Recently, the main company of Hello Travel Shanghai Junzheng Network Technology Co., Ltd. underwent industrial and commercial changes, and the company name was changed to "Shanghai Hello Puhui Technology Co., Ltd.".
In this regard, the relevant person in charge of Hello responded to the interview of the reporter of "Business School": "Junzheng Network was renamed Hello Puhui. The corresponding business of the main body has not been adjusted, and the related businesses are all progressing steadily. After years of business exploration, Hello has established the development direction of the "travel-based life service platform ". Hello will be based in the local life service market in the future to provide users with more professional local travel and life services."
shared bicycle business does not make money, which is a consensus in the industry. At present, shared bicycles are closer to a traffic entrance. Hello once hit an IPO in April 2021. At that time, the prospectus showed that its shared two-wheeler business lost 2.2 billion yuan in 2018, 1.5 billion yuan in 2019, and 1.13 billion yuan in 2020. Didi Chuxing (hereinafter referred to as Didi ) 2021 financial report data shows that other businesses including Qingju had a total loss of 30 billion yuan. Meituan 2021 financial report shows that new businesses including shared bicycles and fresh food lost RMB 38.5 billion.
In the business segments of Meituan and Didi, shared bicycles are not the main business. Meituan and Didi can make profits through other businesses, but Hello is different. Hello, which started with shared bicycles, is its core business. When it realized that it was becoming increasingly difficult to monetize shared bicycles, Hello began to extend its focus on local life services and positioned itself as a "domestic professional local travel and life service platform."
How to tell a new story?
We hope to work with dealers to evolve the profitability of two-wheeled electric vehicle stores in a more three-dimensional and smarter direction. This kind of attempt is currently quite diverse, such as the store can integrate many functions such as car repair and battery replacement.
Data released by Hello on October 9, 2022 showed that the DAU of Hello APP (daily active users) achieved a 40% growth, exceeding 15 million, and the platform's single-day GTV (total platform transaction volume) exceeded 200 million yuan. Among the total revenue in the first nine months of 2022, the revenue from local life business has exceeded the revenue of the bicycle sharing business.
In Hello's view, this data shows that it has got rid of its past dependence on shared travel services. Today, Hello platform has become a local life service platform covering new businesses such as hitchhiking, electric vehicles, car rental, battery swap, insurance, refueling and even hotels.
Halo's extension to local life services began in 2020. The platform launched the "eating, drinking, group buying" service entrance on its APP, and gradually extended local life services to offline scenarios.
However, Meituan and Didi are doing this scenario of local life services. Meituan uses takeaway as the entrance, from buying vegetables to supermarkets, to daily necessities, buying medicine, hotels, , homestays, , etc., covering all scenarios of local life. In Meituan’s local life service ecosystem, travel and fresh food e-commerce have not yet been completely "drawn" and so Meituan is constantly increasing its own travel and fresh food e-commerce business. Didi uses taxi as the access portal and then extends to takeaway, community group buying and other businesses, but both businesses ended with a shrinking.
So, in the case of giant players in the local life service track, what will Hello use to "draw a circle" of its local life service ecosystem?
Halo After sharing bicycles, it has extended a series of new businesses including battery swap, hitchhiking, two-wheeled electric vehicles, among which two-wheeled electric vehicles have become the new business that Hello focuses on developing.
Halo electric vehicles are considered to be the "new force in car manufacturing" among two-wheeled vehicles.So why choose a two-wheeled electric vehicle? A relevant person in charge of Hello said in an interview with a reporter from Business School: "Before launching the shared bicycle project and gaining a foothold, the company's entrepreneurial team has been doing business related to travel. It can be said that travel-related services are Hello's 'base'. From shared bicycles to shared power car , then to electric car battery swap, and then to designing and manufacturing household two-wheeled electric vehicles by itself, we are getting further and further on the road of providing two-wheeled inclusive travel services of various modes, which is in line with the development path and rules of an Internet startup company's diversified operations and continuous business development."
has many views that Hello is working on differentiation in making two-wheeled electric vehicles. iMedia Consulting CEO Zhang Yi believes that Hello has certain advantages in making two-wheeled electric vehicles, because the market currently has a wide demand among consumers across the country, especially urban and rural areas. Therefore, for two-wheeled electric vehicles, its user market is large enough. In addition, the industrial chain that can be driven by two-wheeled electric vehicles is also very large. "So, I think Hello is not wrong in the direction of making a two-wheeled electric car." Zhang Yi said.
Zhang Yi also emphasized that although product differentiation is important, what is more important is quality. Product quality itself can accumulate user reputation, which is the most important thing.
According to Hello, Hello two-wheeled electric vehicles are currently mainly sold in goods, and they are testing the rental model within a very small range. For example, it has opened a two-wheeled electric vehicle flagship store in Shanghai, and opened a two-wheeled electric vehicle store near some tourist attractions. "From the perspective of Hello two-wheeled electric vehicles, we also hope that Hello's stores can have more possibilities with the support of the Internet. We will also closely participate in the store's attempts based on the store development trend." A relevant person in charge of Hello said, "We hope to work with dealers to evolve the profitability of two-wheeled electric vehicle stores to a more three-dimensional and smarter direction. This kind of attempt is currently quite diverse, such as stores can integrate many functions such as car repair and battery swap."
Hallow launched its own brand of two-wheeled electric vehicles, which is equivalent to standing on the opposite side of itself and former partners, competing and confronting them head-only.
was founded in 2016 and was named "Halo Bicycle". In 2018, it was upgraded to "Halo Travel". The founder is Yang Lei and also serves as CEO. In April 2022, it will undergo a brand upgrade, and the brand will be "Hello". Tianyan Check shows that Hello's current operating company is Shanghai Hello Puhui Technology Co., Ltd., which is 100% controlled by Jiangsu Hello Puhui Technology Co., Ltd., and its legal representative of is Yang Lei.
Hello started with shared bicycles, but there are many players on this track, the market has almost saturated, and the market share among several leading companies has also stabilized. For Hello, which has shared bicycles as its core business, it needs to find new growth points.
According to the introduction of the relevant person in charge of Hello, in Hello's long-term vision, the share of the two-wheeled shared (shared bicycle + shared moped) business in the company's total plate will gradually shrink (although the absolute value of revenue will continue to increase), and the scale and proportion of new businesses, including smart two-wheeled electric vehicles, will grow from small to large, and even stand alone. The person in charge said that home smart two-wheeled electric vehicles will be a new growth point for Hello, and it is not the only new growth point. ”
Two-wheeled electric vehicles are a market segment that Hello found in the big track. Wang Sai, a well-known CEO consultant and author of "Growth Five-Tier", said that market segmentation is an important means to help companies understand customer needs.
In the local life service track, two-wheeled electric vehicles, as a travel segment, have customer needs and pain points, and can also differentiate with Didi and Meituan on the local life track. However, in the two-wheeled electric vehicle track, Hello still faces strong competitors.Among them, traditional two-wheeled electric vehicle manufacturers cannot ignore it. Traditional manufacturers such as Yadi , Xinri , Emma, Number and other market share in the two-wheeled electric vehicle market cannot be underestimated. For Hello, how to narrow the gap with them is the issue it needs to consider.
In the view of Internet Observer Ding Daoshi , Hello's development path is to be both a "referee" and an "athlete". "Hallow launched its own brand two-wheeled electric vehicles, which is equivalent to standing on the opposite side of itself and former partners and competing and confronting them head-on, such as Yadi, Emma, etc., in the future."
According to public information, as of 2021, the number of Hello electric vehicle stores has exceeded 3,000 and sales exceeds 600,000. According to Yadi's financial report data, Yadi sold about 13.8 million two-wheeled electric vehicles worldwide in 2021, an increase of 28.3% year-on-year, including about 7.7 million electric bicycles and about 6.1 million electric scooters. Emma and Xinri's sales in 2021 are 8 million and 2.1 million respectively.
In terms of production capacity, Hello has successively invested in the construction of two-wheeled electric vehicle intelligent manufacturing factories in , Wuxi and Tianjin. The veteran manufacturer Yadi currently has seven production bases, namely Tianjin, Zhejiang, Wuxi, Guangdong, Anhui, Chongqing and Vietnam.
Hello's relevant person in charge introduced: "Hello currently has two factories in Wuxi and Tianjin, with an annual planned production capacity of 3 million units, which can basically meet the current capacity demand of Hello electric vehicles." By comparing the numbers, you can see that although Hello two-wheeled electric vehicles are growing rapidly, there is still a big gap compared with old manufacturers. How does Hello narrow the gap? A relevant person in charge of Hello said: "In 2022, Hello has put into use many important internal projects such as Tianjin factory, industrial design center, quality monitoring laboratory, etc., which is laying the foundation for us to make a long-term good. We believe that with the popularity of intelligence among users, Hello electric vehicles will achieve an ideal sales scale."
"Hallow has a history in the field of shared travel, and it has been relatively successful. Therefore, for users, there is no problem with the recognition of the brand it has built. The key to its development in the two-wheeled electric vehicle field is its cost-effectiveness, product, and its own differentiation. This is the key point that determines whether it can make great progress in the two-wheeled electric vehicle track in the future." Zhang Yi said.
How to draw the local life service ecosystem?
Hallow is essentially an ecological and platform company. It should connect with more partners and jointly make the market bigger and stronger. There is no need to end up in person. The more you do yourself, the more opponents you will establish. Many of the previous partners will also leave, and in the long run, it will not be worth the loss.
Previously, Hello, together with Ant Financial and CATL , launched a battery swap service. This service attracted electric vehicle companies such as Yadi and Moling, and announced cooperation with Hello's battery swap business to join Hello's travel ecosystem. Later developments also proved that the joining of these companies also promoted the development of Hello battery swap business.
But this "win-win" model was broken. After Hello left the market to build a two-wheeled electric car, the former partner became a competitor.
2021 Yadi said at the press conference of its sub-brand VFLY that it will subvert traditions in high-end stadiums and break through industry restrictions, and publicly "yell" in the video of the press conference - "Don't hello, please say something if you have something to do."
Faced with the former partners becoming competitors, a relevant person in charge of Hello said: "Intelligence is a trend that is seen in the electric vehicle industry at present, but few peers are as intelligent as Hello. Hello Electric Vehicle hopes to use intelligence to solve the real pain points encountered by users in the process of experiencing electric vehicles, such as battery life, anti-theft, key unlocking, etc. At present, some achievements have been made in many directions."
Halo entered the smart two-wheeled electric vehicle, relying on the self-developed intelligent software VVSMART hyperconnected vehicle system. This system can make electric vehicles intelligent.
According to Ding Dao Master's analysis and judgment, Hello does not need to take all the market for making two-wheeled electric vehicles, but after it passes its own experimental verification, its platform will also enter third-party two-wheeled electric vehicles to provide services to users. This is its big logic.
in Ding Dao Master It seems that Hello personally entered the two-wheeled electric vehicle and made more important arrangements for its VVSMART super networking vehicle system. This super networking vehicle system is to layout Hello's entire ecosystem and make profits from the ecological level. "We can imagine a scenario where one day you ride the Yadi electric vehicle equipped with VVSMART super networking vehicle system and ride it near the restaurant. A group purchase discount package pops up on the screen. Then this service is likely to be provided by partners in Hello's ecosystem. This service spans the brand and type of electric vehicles, and can connect both supply and demand ends without any obstacles through Internet services. By that time, Hello had been upgraded to an ecological platform and had a greater voice in the travel industry. "
Ding Daoshi believes that Hello wants to make an ecosystem and a platform, and the car-machine system should be opened for use by the industry, rather than being both a "referee" and a "athlete". In Ding Daoshi's view, Hello is essentially an ecological and platform company. It should connect more partners and jointly make the market bigger and stronger. It does not need to end in person. The more you do it yourself, the more opponents you have established. Many previous partners will also leave, which will not be worth the loss in the long run.
to Regarding whether it can compete with traditional companies on the two-wheeled electric vehicle track, Zhang Yi believes that Hello still has a long way to go, and there are three reasons: First, the maturity of this track is relatively high; second, in terms of the entire channel, brand and consumer awareness, its competitors have relatively large advantages; third, for the choice of users, the traditional competitors have a quantity advantage. In theory, Hello can achieve an absolute advantage in price and quality. Therefore, in the travel track, Hello still needs a lot of effort to make a sound in the vertical field of two-wheeled electric vehicles that it has entered.
