At present, Didi Bus has opened 33 lines in Beijing and 0 lines in Shenzhen/KLOC-0. The overall price ranges from 7 yuan to 13 yuan. For the time being, you can only book tickets through its official WeChat account. Didi official said that it is expected to open hundreds of lines in Beijing and Shenzhen by the end of July. National Business Daily reporter experienced a Didi bus in Shenzhen on July 2 1 and chose the off-duty route from the Grand Theatre to Houhai. Including reporters, the whole bus has four passengers. The staff on the bus said that there were relatively few people in this pass, while the attendance rate of other routes leading to the pass was higher.
In the first week of launch, Didi Bus only spent a penny on all routes in Beijing and Shenzhen, continuing the high subsidy model of Didi Kuai as always. The staff said that the fare may be adjusted to one yuan next, and the price will be gradually raised in the future.
A passenger in the car said that this is his second time to take the Didi bus, but he may not choose after the price increase in the future. "Where there is subway coverage, the subway is definitely more convenient, because customized buses can only take the bus at a fixed time, and the subway is cheaper and there will be no traffic jams." "The future bus business will definitely be one of our business priorities, because it is related to many of our business expansion and user expansion." The relevant person in charge of Didi Kuaidi told the reporter.
Internet companies are fierce.
Before Didi Bus, Internet startups had already entered the customized bus market.
The piggy bus established in July last year is expanding to second-tier cities. According to the data provided by piggy bus, more than 4,000 routes have been opened in more than ten cities including Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Nanjing.
Passenger comfort during rush hour is one of the pain points of customized bus aiming. Piggy bus follows the principle of combining residential area with commercial area, and designs the route quickly and long distance. "Bus stops are mostly around crowded places, so we will choose places where the road conditions are relatively less congested, such as taking the expressway, so that we can gain a time advantage over public transportation during peak hours." Wang He, founder and CEO of Pig Bus, told reporters.
According to the official data of Dada Bus, since its establishment in early March, it has reached nearly 1 000 routes and more than 200 routes in Shenzhen, covering five major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Nanjing, with a total of about 300,000 users.
The fast-growing Dada bus has also been favored by capital. In May this year, Shenzhen Liuchi Technology, the operator of Ta Da Bus, announced that it had received 42 million yuan in financing, including 5 million yuan for Angel Wheel and 37 million yuan for A Wheel.
As can be seen on the bus APP, in addition to the lines that have been opened, users can also apply for lines according to their own needs, and there are often some differences between these applied lines. "The user starts the line in the application. If the number of applicants reaches 25, the bus will start. " Zhou Ruijin, founder and CEO of Dada Bus, told reporters.
Zhou Ruijin said that for the vast majority of users of customized buses, the price is insensitive, and the offline experience is the most important, so it is unlikely that a price subsidy war will break out in the future.
The nature of custom bus is difficult to define.
In the face of the invasion of Internet companies, traditional bus groups are also actively responding. The customized bus of Shenzhen Public Transport Group started operation in April last year. The National Business Daily reporter saw on the website of Shenzhen Public Transport Group that up to now, seven customized bus lines have been opened.
Just after Didi Bus was launched 10 (July 26th), Guangzhou "Yueru Bus" was launched and two customized routes were opened. According to public reports, this customized bus platform similar to Didi Bus is organized and operated by Guangzhou Municipal Communications Commission, and the "Joyo Bus" APP will be launched soon.
For customized buses, the competent authorities said that they are still under continuous observation.
The relevant person in charge of the Shenzhen Communications Commission told the reporter: "Customized buses are not like private cars. They cannot be said to be illegal operations, but they are definitely not regular buses, so it is still impossible to clearly define customized buses." However, she expressed doubts about the market demand for customized buses: "Shenzhen's subway buses are relatively developed, and the places where the demand for customized buses is relatively concentrated may be Longhua, Huaqiang North and Qianhai. It remains to be seen whether the customized bus can be bigger. "
In fact, most buses are already trying to cooperate with the government. At the beginning of July, the Intelligent Transportation Department of Shenzhen Communications Commission went to Dada Bus for investigation.
On June 19 this year, the Ministry of Communications issued a notice to further accelerate the construction of intelligent application demonstration projects for urban public transport, proposing to complete the first batch of demonstration projects in pilot cities 19 by the end of 20 15. Zhou Ruijin said: "Tada Bus expects to take this policy train and participate in the intelligent construction of public transportation." "We have never competed with the public transport system. By optimizing the line design, we have formed a cooperative and complementary relationship with the bus system. " Wang He also told reporters.
How to make money is also a problem.
Public transport has always been a highly subsidized industry because of its service and public welfare. The annual reports of Shenzhen Public Transport Group from 20 1 1 to 20 14 show that the annual revenue of the group is about1500 million yuan, while the operating cost is basically about 3 billion yuan (including the subway). The annual financial subsidy is as high as 2 billion yuan, barely making a profit. Can customized public transport find sustainable profit points?
Zhongnan Service Bus Co., Ltd. is one of the car companies providing services for Dada Bus in Shenzhen. According to the reporter of National Business Daily, the daily rental market price of a 53-seat Yutong bus is about 1.600 yuan, and the current fare of Dada bus is about 0.4 yuan per kilometer. Take a route with a fare of 5 yuan as an example. Even if all commuters are filled with 5 1 person, the daily fare income is only 565438+.
"Because we are relatively large, the rent will definitely be much less than the market price." Zhou Ruijin said, "Dada Bus still has a lot of passenger resources. A bus ticket with an attendance rate of about 70% can basically cover the rental cost. "
"In the future, we will make a profit through advertising and e-commerce." Zhou Ruijin told reporters that in the future, buses also want to expand to Zhou Bianyou, intercity and even post-bus market. "This tourism market is 1000 billion."
However, according to relevant financial reports, Shenzhen Public Transport Group operates 46 10 buses, which basically cover various brand advertisements, but still cannot reverse the actual huge losses. So how likely is it that customized buses will make profits through advertising?
For the profit model, piggy bus still doesn't care much. "Now we mainly focus on the user experience, and the most important thing is to do a good job in line design and service. If you don't do a good job in user service, it is useless to think about the profit model now. " Wang He told reporters.
Cai Jianming, a researcher in the transportation industry of China Investment Consulting, said in an interview that since the fare of customized buses is between the bus price and the subway price, there is not much profit space, and in order to attract users, promotional activities should be carried out frequently, which also increases the operating costs accordingly. Therefore, customized buses need to obtain additional profits through more offline services.