Charge for 2 hours and charge 30 yuan. Who gave the shared power bank the courage to “rise again and again”?

When I went to a shopping mall for dinner some time ago, my phone almost ran out of power, so I borrowed a shared power bank.

I also borrowed a shared power bank several times in the same place before, so I used to not look carefully when I borrowed it. When I returned it, I was shocked. The charge was 10 yuan for more than 2 hours, and the price increased again.

At that time, I was using the iPhone 12 mini with a battery capacity of 2227mAh, which was charged from 2% to 100%. In other words, every 1% of power (22mAh) is approximately equal to 0.1 yuan. A rough estimate is that if the charging power remains the same, it will cost about 20 yuan to charge a 4500mAh mobile phone .

And a 10000mAh Mi power bank, the price is only 69 yuan.

The latest news shows that street power continues to be profitable, and Monster Charging may go public in the United States. One can imagine how "sweet" the shared power bank business is. Then users question: Who gave them the courage to increase prices? !

Once it rises and then rises, will it rise again?

This is not the first time that the price of shared power banks has increased, but the business was actually free at the beginning.

In 2015, shared power banks gradually appeared on the streets. In order to dispel users' doubts, various brands of shared power banks adopted a free strategy to cultivate user habits.

During this period, the shared power bank business has been in the money-burning stage. Wang Sicong once replied in a high-profile manner: "If the shared power bank can make me enjoy it, I will post it as a proof."

What Wang Sicong did not expect was that by 2018, someone estimated that the annual revenue of the street electricity family alone would exceed 500 million yuan. According to statistics, the user scale of the entire shared power bank market exceeded 100 million person-times that year.

Since then, the shared power bank has entered the fast lane of development, and the number of users has increased by 50-100 million people per year. Some research reports even show that the number of shared power bank users in 2020 will reach 400 million.

At the same time, the cost of shared charging treasures has risen from free to 0.5 yuan/hour, to 1.5 yuan/hour, 3 yuan/hour or even higher. It also introduces a strategy similar to big data algorithms. The more hot business areas are, The higher the peak business period, the higher the cost of sharing the power bank .

At the end of 2020, the price of shared power banks that increased again during the Spring Festival triggered large-scale protests. Many people complained that "shared power banks will start harvesting as soon as they occupy the market." "It costs 8 yuan for more than 1 hour" and "charges 3 for 10 minutes." Yuan, etc., the business that initially focused on "convenient charging" has become a target of criticism.

According to the survey results of CCTV reporters, some shared charging treasures are placed in crowded shopping malls and scenic spots. During the peak period of borrowing, the charge can even reach the level of "charging for 2 hours and charging 30 yuan."

After the matter was fermented, some shared power bank brands responded: "(This) is the charging standard adjusted by stores in different regions according to market conditions, not a unified price increase by the platform."

The implication is that price increases are in line with market laws, and the possibility of continued price increases in the future is not ruled out.

How "sweet" is the business after the price increase?

Knowing that users are upset, they still have to increase the price. Why does the shared power bank "go all the way to the dark"?

Because it makes money, it's too profitable.

Take street power as an example, according to the analysis of Xueqiu.com user "David Big Corn":

In 2018, Jumei Youpin’s New Business revenue totaled 880 million yuan. Some calculations are needed here. Since Fulfillment accounts for a more accurate proportion of Merchandise Sales, based on the Fulfillment Cost in the first half of the year, it can be calculated that Merchandise Sales in the first half of the year is 2 billion, that is, new business revenue is 365 million.

The company stated that the revenue from TV dramas has already been included. Therefore, the new business revenue in the second half of the year should be pure street electricity, and the new business revenue for the whole year minus the business revenue for the first half of the year is 514 million yuan.

Note that, in other words, in the second half of 2018, the revenue of street power was 514 million yuan, so even if it does not increase, the revenue of 1 billion yuan this year (2019) will not be a problem at all.

So how to calculate the profit of the shared power bank business?

The cost of street electricity is divided into 3 parts: agent/merchant split commission, depreciation and expansion maintenance staff salary (if it is an agent model, the expansion staff salary should be included in the agent).

At present, the open channels can see the commission model with agents, and the commission varies from 45% to 65%. In terms of depreciation, the depreciation time of power bank plus machines is 3-5 years. At the end of 2018, the net value of fixed assets of power bank plus machines is 690 million yuan, so it is about 138 million-230 million yuan per year.

Regardless of growth, the revenue of 1 billion is divided according to the most pessimistic 65% of the agents, and the depreciation of 230 million a year, there is still 120 million, and the operating profit margin is 12%. And if we take the median value, we divide commissions by 55% of the agents, depreciation of 172.5 million, and 278 million left, and the operating profit margin is 27.8%.

Therefore, regardless of over-expansion and deduction of income tax, Street Power should have a net profit of at least 100-200 million yuan in 2019, with Jumei accounting for 82% of the total, and the parent company's 82 million-164 million yuan.

It is really rare in the market to be able to make such a beautiful business. If estimated according to the roughest and most static method and all other factors remain unchanged, increasing the hourly price of a shared power bank from 1.5 yuan to 2 yuan can result in a net profit increase of 10 million yuan.

The most important thing is that this does not count the revenue from the advertising business of the shared power bank. According to analysis, according to the current charging standards, some shared charging treasures are placed in large shopping malls, and the cost can be recovered in about 3 days, and the later charges are almost pure income.

What is the reason for the arrogant price increase?

With a business scale of hundreds of millions, it is almost impossible for the corresponding company to observe public opinion without a professional team. Public protests continue, and shared power banks are still "doing their own way". It is likely that the "rigid demand" of this business has been determined.

It now appears that shared power bank is not a high-tech business, it just captures two pain points of users:

1. Mobile phone battery life anxiety
2. Human inertia

Mobile phones, a human "new organ", must continue to rely on electricity. In addition, our lives are almost inseparable from smartphones. The average use time per person is rising, power-consuming functions are increasing, and battery life anxiety has become a problem for many people. The "tightening curse" of not going , when the phone is out of power, as long as it can be charged, the price is no longer a problem.

In order for most of the self-purchased power banks to have a headache, users must predict when they might encounter a dead cell phone and charge the power bank in advance.

People are inert. It is okay to charge the power bank in advance once or twice. Repeatedly, you lose patience. If you bring your own power bank, you have to carry the power bank and the data cable, which is troublesome for some people.

Just like me, several power banks lie down and eat ashes. When facing the high price "harvesting" of shared power banks, they can only complain a few words.

In addition, the sharing economy is declining, market investment enthusiasm has declined, financing costs have risen, credit-free pledges have weakened cash flow, and some shared power bank brands need to make brilliant financial reports when preparing to go public , which are also some of the driving factors for price increases.

How to solve battery life anxiety?

In order to avoid being "harvested" by the shared power bank again, I bought a two-in-one power bank with a charging head. I usually use it as a charging head. It is always plugged into the socket. Unplug it before going out, it will be a fully charged power bank. It is rarely used. It's time to share the power bank.

In addition, we buy mobile phones with fast charging and high battery capacity to reduce the charging time and increase the battery life of the mobile phone, which is also a feasible solution.

However, these two methods treat the symptoms but not the root cause. The battery life anxiety is still there. Sometimes you are lazy and don't want to carry a power bank with your backpack. You still have to use a shared power bank obediently.

Some people think that the shared power bank can’t be used several times a year. “Even if it rises from 1.5 yuan/hour to 15 yuan/hour, it will not cost much”, but from the perspective of the increase, even if it rises from 1 yuan to 2 yuan , Then the increase is as high as 100%. This kind of seemingly painless price increase is precisely to make the "gentle knife" "harvest" more concealed .

When writing this article, we have checked the official websites of the price bureaus of four first-tier cities, and have not yet found the price regulations for shared power banks. Perhaps this is the reason why the price of shared charging treasures has risen "willfully" and confidently responded to doubts about the price increase.

The common denominator of "harvest"

There are many phenomena that start to increase prices after occupying the market.

From express delivery to home, to express delivery to cabinets, the express cabinets are covered in various communities, and free of charge has become a charge. There is no overtime storage fee, and the express delivery cannot be taken out.

From huge subsidies to high-priced dispatch fees, taxis are convenient, but fares are more expensive than taxis, and big data is "cut" while users are not paying attention.

From buying food offline to delivering food to home, I want to use a low-price strategy to bring down the hawkers. Fortunately, this time users have their eyes brightened. "The subsidies before, the monopoly will have to double the income", the user protested The sound was seen by the relevant departments and directly imposed an administrative penalty of 6.5 million yuan on five community group buying companies that had improper price behaviors.

It is not difficult to find that the new type of monopoly established by enterprises using the Internet is being warned by more and more people . This is a good trend.

If the enterprise is the dragon-slaying warrior, and the Internet is the dragon-slaying sword, I think everyone hopes that the dragon-slaying warrior will keep his original aspirations and resolutely burn the script that will eventually become a dragon.

Remarks: Analysis of Street Telecom’s 2018 financial report, from Xueqiu.com user "David Big Corn"

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