U.S. investors say that Zipcar's performance in technology and customer experience is nearly perfect. The problem is that it cannot find a cost-effective way to attract more customers. In the past three years, Zipcar's membership has been increasing, but the growth rate is declining. The initial public praise of “beep” is good, but it lacks the motivation for sustainable development. Whether in the United States or in China, car sharing seems to have entered a "ghost bubble" that can't come.

Around 2011, when the founder of Che Yunxiang came to Xiaomin's memory, Yuntao, the founder of Doodle, came to find him. Yuntao had a good relationship with Zipcar's technical director and directly introduced a set of ready-made technologies. However, there is a lack of offline outlet resources, so I hope to cooperate with him. At that time, there was also a startup company called Yi Duo, who was also doing car sharing. It was a set of technology platforms imported from Germany. At this time, Lai Xiaomin has already conducted research on some well-known colleagues in the international community. Intuitively, he told him that copying Zipcar technology or copying foreign models in China would not work.

why? How resilient Zipcar's technology is in China is hard to say. Once, a customer drove a rented car from Hangzhou to Shaoxing and suddenly called the “reserve the car” background administrator to call him. After he got off the bus, he went back and used the membership card again. Can't open the door. At that time, they had not yet developed the technology to remotely open and close the doors. They had to send someone to open the car for several hours to get on-site maintenance.

Later, technicians analyzed that the reasons for the failure of the door opener's card reader may have multiple reasons: First, the card reader needs 3G communication signals, and some locations have poor signal, and they cannot open the door; in addition, it is also possible that the temperature is too high. The glue on the glass window is melted. This is a relatively serious "accident" that "Che Fuen" encountered in the early testing stage.

China’s market environment and application environment are too complex. “In the United States, it is difficult to imagine that the door could not be opened because there is no signal or excessive temperature.” Lai Xiaomin feels that this situation is too much in China. And the environment is an important factor that determines the focus and direction of R&D.

The more crucial issue is not yet this. Zipcar's pricing model is based on a rent-mileage algorithm that does not require additional payment for oil. But in China, this method is like a cafeteria. "A lot of people are leaning against the wall and holding the wall. come out". Therefore, "Che Fun" is currently charged at a rent of 13.7 yuan per hour plus an oil fee of 0.86 yuan per kilometer.

“Laowai mainly manages itself, but in China, in addition to self-management, it also requires processes to design the supervision and management system.” Lai Xiaomin said, “Technology is not just a technology, but behind technology is a set of management and operation and maintenance models. "Technology is the standard, management is the essence, light introduction technology, it is very difficult to take root, can not go."

"The car has to enjoy" is also very different from Zipcar, is the source of the two models. Zipcar's main approach is a light-asset approach. Its car source comes from the second-lease of private car sharing and leasing companies. The vast majority of the current 200 vehicles purchased by “Che Fu Xiang” are self-purchased cars. At the end of the year, private cars will also join in. This means that it is taking the “first lighter, lighter” assets. mode.

The complete asset-light model means that your pricing model “can't be completely controlled.” “Originally the leasing company is already a second-hand trafficker. If you rent a car from a leasing company, you don’t become a three-language trader?” Lai Xiaomin raised several domestic titles. Take a commercial car rental company as an example. "Some rented cars are priced at more than 5,000 yuan at least. There is no way that they can be, and they may not be as high as they are. Where's the profit. But the price is so high. How much can you rent?"

The “light and heavy collocation” is a good news for users. “Users can drive away a car with cheaper money, and at the same time, the market will expand faster, and in turn, it will also increase our future negotiations with leasing companies. Bargaining power." Lai Xiaomin's wishful thinking is so calculated. In spite of this, he did not hurry to make the plate bigger, but instead settled on the Hangzhou market first and then slowly figured it out.

Indeed, for Zipcar, the most serious problem is precisely its cash ability. As of September last year, the company’s cash inventories was 65 million U.S. dollars, after it had already raised 97 million U.S. dollars, but these are still not enough to support its continued expansion in Europe. The U.S. car rental company Avis, which eventually put Zipcar in the bag, had precisely its “great asset purchasing power.” Over the years, the company “has always relied on this ability to grow its ranks, so it can certainly be lower. The price to buy and rent a car."

Of course, "cars enjoy" also has its problems. Someone proposed that long-distance car use or short-distance business trips can be solved by companies like Shenzhou Car Rental. The daily car demand in the same city, such as the need of commuting cars for urban white-collar workers, is highly synchronized on time and on the line. It is difficult to realize the sharing by staggering in time and space. It is better to do a simple carpooling business and eliminate a lot of traffic. Technology and capital investment.