"Yimin Bicycle upgraded to Yimin Travel Group, targeting overseas markets"
"Valuation from 0 to 5 billion US dollars in one year"
"Huimin Travel has received tens of billions of financing, supported by international capital from Japan, New Zealand, and the United States"
"Breaking news is coming! The shared bicycle overlord received a huge financing of US$1.5 billion, with a valuation of over US$5 billion"
"Yimin received tens of billions of financing, is the shared bicycle market settled?"
The news spread at the B+ round financing press conference of Yimin Travel. The financing agreement had just been signed. Zhang Yida struck while the iron was hot, invited media reporters and partners, and held a grand press conference.
The press conference is still in progress, and the articles compiled by reporters are being sent out.
"Mr. Zhang, it is said that Yimin Travel is accelerating its overseas business expansion. Can you tell us more about it?"
During the reporter's question session, a reporter raised his hand and asked Zhang Yida a question.
"Currently, the countries where it has been launched include Singapore and the United States. We will speed up the pace and expand to more countries and regions."
The shared electric scooter has not yet launched an official product. Zhang Yida did not want to expose it in advance, so his answer was perfunctory.
"Mr. Zhang, this time Huimin Travel has raised nearly 10 billion yuan, will it expand the car-building plan and increase bicycle subsidies?"
"Yes, we will launch a new round of car-building plans and put no less than 5 million shared bicycles on the market.
As for the intensity of subsidies!”
Zhang Yida pretended to be mysterious, paused, and then said: "Hey! It's secret for now. We already have a new plan internally."
"Huimin Bicycle already ranks first in the domestic market share, and it has received a huge amount of financing this time. May I ask Mr. Zhang, what is your next goal?"
“There are many goals, and some are lofty.
The first is to complete the overall business coverage of 278 prefecture-level cities in China, and will continue to expand to 360 county-level cities if there is spare capacity.
Our hope is to let more people enjoy the convenient service of shared bicycles.
The other is the strategic goal of reaching 100 million registered users and exceeding 30 million daily riding orders."
After this financing, Zhang Yida decided that in addition to adding some bicycles to first- and second-tier cities, most of the bicycles will be released to third- and fourth-tier cities.
Third- and fourth-tier cities are incremental markets, and many cities have not yet had bicycles settled in them. Huimin Bicycle must go there first to seize the market.
"Mr. Zhang, according to the authoritative survey report, the total population of the four major first-tier cities is more than 70 million people. Based on a penetration rate of 2.5%, a total of 1.75 million bicycles need to be put in.
But currently, the market competition is most intense in first-tier cities, where the total number of bicycles is close to one million.
If the investment continues at this rate, the stock of shared bicycles in first-tier cities will soon exceed 1.75 million. Is this a waste of resources?"
This reporter asked a good question. Zhang Yida knew that the number of 1.75 million vehicles would soon be surpassed.
Shared bicycles in the streets and alleys clog the road, with a sentry every three steps and a post every five steps.
But this problem is somewhat unsolvable. Should Huimin Travel reduce the number of investments in first-tier cities and focus on third- and fourth-tier cities?
That's certainly unrealistic.
First-tier cities are where everyone builds their brand. It’s so important that no one will give up.
If major bicycle companies do not give up the market in first-tier cities, there will soon be a surplus of bicycles.
From a convenient tool that facilitates people's "last mile travel", it has become a big trouble that occupies and blocks roads.
"It will cause a waste of resources, so I call on all major city governments to issue relevant regulations as soon as possible to plan the number of bicycles and parking areas in each city.
Bidding will be used to determine which car companies can enter the city to operate, as well as the upper limit on the number of bicycles to be released.
Going too far is not enough, and I cannot bear to see shared bicycles transform from a convenient tool into something that adds congestion to the city."
Zhang Yida spoke his mind. He felt that shared bicycles were about to go the same way as in previous lives.
China's urban population is 600 million, and the optimal penetration rate is 2.5%, so the optimal number of vehicles for the entire industry is 15 million vehicles.
Exceeding this amount will cause a waste of resources and affect the cleanliness of urban streets.
Zhang Yida's words caused an uproar, and the audience was buzzing.
The reporters were very excited, this was huge news! Industry leaders requested supervision.
Weird things happen every day, especially today!
The reporter, who is quick-thinking, has already started writing an article. The title has been chosen, and it is called "Bike-sharing industry leader asks for city supervision."
Fingers are flying on the keyboard, and lines of text are being written. I want to grab the headlines!
Another reporter asked:
"What you mean, Mr. Zhang, is that after shared bicycles reach saturation, other companies will not come in to compete. Is that what you mean?"
Of course Zhang Yida knew that this reporter had bad intentions and was stirring up trouble. He stared at the reporter and said with a smile:
"You can't say that, the choice lies with the city regulators.
Whoever has a good cycling experience and good management will naturally choose which company to settle in that city.
From an industry perspective, I also appeal to my colleagues: develop healthily and benignly, and do not engage in malicious competition."
"Who is engaging in malicious competition? Mr. Zhang said that he would be the first to launch Xiaolan Bicycle for free riding. Do you want to worship them like Mobike?"
The reporter asked again.
What a provocateur! But Zhang Yida would not show any displeasure on his face and said with a smile:
“Free riding will help promote more users to register for the shared bicycle APP and expand the user base.
From a marketing perspective, there is nothing wrong with doing it in the short term.
But if it becomes the norm, it will dig its own grave.
For a company to develop in the long term, it definitely needs positive cash flow and profitability.
Without profit, how can we talk about research and development and improving user experience?
When running a business, you can't just talk about feelings. Venture capitalists are not fools, they will always accompany you to burn money?
There is always a degree.”
Zhang Yida decided to be a villain and put some constraints on the industry that was gradually developing disorderly.
Other companies are going crazy and cannot drag Huimin Bicycle into the water.
Under the heavy pressure of gambling, if Huimin Bicycle keeps pursuing the free riding strategy, it will never be able to achieve revenue balance.
If you want to occupy 80% of the market size of the industry, you can only go crazy and launch bicycles like crazy.
Then we embark on the same path of no return that shared bicycles took in the previous life!
"Oh, Mr. Zhang, you mean that if a company wants to develop healthily, it must be down-to-earth and not burn money aimlessly, right?"
"Yimin has always adhered to this strategy, which is why investment talents trust us so much that they dare to invest US$1.5 billion in us!
I have no control over other companies."
Zhang Yida continued to apply eye drops, just to get these reporters who were worried about the world's chaos to spread the word to him, preferably to the venture capital firms.
In this way, it will not be easy for other shared bicycles to raise funds. If they cannot raise funds, the entire industry will calm down and will not be destroyed.
This is indeed a bit of a loss. But in the long run, it does safeguard the interests of the entire industry.
…
After Yimin Travel Group’s Series B financing conference, Zhang Yida’s various opinions expressed at the conference were compiled into articles by reporters.
"Zhang Yida calls for cities to increase supervision of shared bicycles and corporate development to return to rationality"
"Zhang Yida said: Free riding cannot become the norm for shared bicycles, if it becomes the norm, you will definitely die"
"From the perspective of the entire industry, he called on everyone to develop healthily and not engage in malicious competition."
These are all pretty good, but some of them taken out of context are even more interesting:
"Zhang Yida said: Venture capitalists are not fools. Sharing bicycles for free rides will not raise funds in the future."
"The optimal number of shared bicycles is about to reach its peak, Zhang Yida warns latecomers to be careful"
"After raising US$1.5 billion, he told everyone: save money and spend it"
These articles quickly became popular articles on Weibo and WeChat.
Some people who eat melon said:
"Zhang Yida is too stingy. He has raised tens of billions of dollars in financing and is not willing to give users any benefits."
"That is, the richer you get, the stingier you become. I will never ride Huimin Bicycle again."
"Which Internet company doesn't have a free policy when it goes online? From now on, I will ride whichever company offers free bicycles."
Some calmer users also said:
"Zhang Yida has a long-term vision. The number of bicycles does need to be controlled. Even parking and parking indiscriminately needs to be supervised."
“From a business model perspective, the depreciation and operating costs of shared bicycles are very high.
If we continue to offer free rides for a long time, it will be a dead end if we fail to raise funds.”
Zhang Yida also went to see the reactions of people on the Internet. The vast majority of people supported free riding, but only a small number of people said they didn't care. It's not expensive to charge dozens of yuan a month.
Many people talked about boycotting Huimin Bicycles on the Internet, but Zhang Yida didn't take them seriously. With Huimin Bikes' coverage and quantity, and without a free policy, there should be many users willing to ride them.
If we insist on the free strategy, people who say they don’t want to ride will just laugh and come to ride, and they will also say: It smells so good!
What really deserves Zhang Yida's attention is the response from local governments and the response from shared bicycle practitioners.
The former received very few responses, and only the Pengcheng City Government invited Huimin Travel Group to discuss it.
It is indeed an innovative city, and we plan to be the first to try it.
However, Zhang Yida is not discouraged. He will start the pilot project in Pengcheng first. If the results are good, it will be easy to expand to other cities.
Bike-sharing practitioners have mixed reactions. Some support Zhang Yida and believe that shared bikes should return to the normal business model and develop healthily;
We should also ridicule Zhang Yida, saying that he is alarmist and obstructs the financing of other enterprises.
Anyway, there are mixed reviews. Among the dozens of shared bicycle companies, except for some that have not spoken out, most of them are "anti-Zhang faction".
From their standpoint, it's quite understandable. If urban regulatory policies are implemented, most small businesses without capital, technology and sufficient operational capabilities will be eliminated.
After all, there are only a few people who can obtain a city operation license, and people like Huimin should be the ones who get the biggest benefits.
Zhang Yida also called on everyone to develop rationally and not let everyone go crazy building bicycles. He also announced that he would build 5 million bicycles.
What does this mean? Typical double standards!
If you co-author, you will have more financing, tens of billions of financing in hand, and you will be qualified to build bicycles if you have the strength.
Those of us who have raised tens of millions or hundreds of millions can’t build bicycles?
Those who spoke out were all small fry. The ones that really attracted Zhang Yida's attention were Baimo, Yong'anxing, and Xiaolan, who remained silent and did not express any opinions.
Zhang Yida guessed that if he released his huge amount of financing of 1.5 billion US dollars, some small and medium-sized investment institutions would not dare to leave!
The time for industry reshuffle is coming, which can be regarded as the second half of shared bicycles.
I wonder how Baimo and the others will react next?
What Zhang Yida is most worried about is Ahli and Didi. Small and medium-sized institutions dare not give up. These two troublemakers will definitely not give up.
Ali pays attention to strategic layout, and shared bicycles are destined to become a major traffic portal, and Ali will definitely not give up.
As for Didi, it has its own banking business. It has just merged with Kuaidi and received a lot of financing. It will definitely continue to develop the entire industry chain.
Behind the temporary silence, bigger actions should be brewing.