In recent years, with the development of urbanization, the improvement of transportation infrastructure and the rise of new business models such as community group buying, it has stimulated the great development potential of the logistics market in the same city.
According to the Frost Sullivan report, the annual compound growth rate of the Asian intercity logistics online market will be as high as 53.1% from 2021 to 2025, and the market size is expected to reach US $86.2 billion by 2025, of which the Chinese mainland market will reach 399 billion yuan, accounting for 72.7%.
The popularity of capital also confirms this: since its establishment in 2015, cargo lesbians have completed a total of $2.475 billion; in 2021, DiDi Global Inc., who was born with the "golden key", completed $1.5 billion in round A financing; in June, Full Truck Alliance Co. Ltd. went public in the United States, with a market capitalization of more than $23 billion on the first day; and KuaiDog taxi-hailing completed $100m in Pre-IPO round financing in July 2021.
However, behind the high frequency and high financing, it seems that it does not really promote the high-quality and orderly development of the industry.
It seems that gone are the days when capital alone can lead to extensive development of the industry. Internet enterprises to seize traffic by various means, through price subsidies to achieve winner-take-all is no longer a long-term development plan. In September 2021, Zhou Xiaochuan, vice chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia, stressed at the Boao Forum that enterprises should participate in market competition at real cost, platform enterprises should have a moral bottom line, and capital and investment banks should choose to do "the right thing."
However, the development of the industry is "a few joys and several sorrows". Although the development of the entire city freight industry seems to have reached a freezing point, there is also good news at the beginning of the year. On February 6, Kuaigou taxi was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and will be officially launched and listed on the main board on the next day, with CICC, UBS, BoCom International and Agricultural Bank of China International acting as joint guarantees.
In the industry, fast dog ride-hailing has always been low-key, there is no large-scale financing, there is little marketing action, its development is characterized by "stable". According to Frost Sullivan, Kuaigou Taxi is the second largest online city logistics platform in mainland China in terms of total transaction volume in 2020, with a market share of 5.5%.
This not only makes the author wonder that the freight industry is a typical industry that is both heavy and light, with light mode and difficult management. how does the fast dog taxi-hailing come from behind and take the lead in going through customs?
After some research, it is found that the development path of this company is unique. Today, the author makes a specific analysis around the dimensions of financing, drivers' rights and interests, car market and so on.
Use financing as a tactic rather than a strategy
In the whole city freight industry, the biggest difference of this company is "financing".
Looking at other players in the same industry, the amount of financing starts at US $1.5 billion. For example, less than a year after DiDi Global Inc. Freight was established, round A took US $1.5 billion financing from Country Garden Holdings Venture Capital, Yunfeng Fund, CPE Yuanfeng, GLP Hidden Mountain Capital and other investments; Lala also completed US $1.5 billion in F-round financing in 2021.
In the public information, there are only three rounds of financing for Kuaidou car-hailing. The latest round is the Pre-IPO round, which was completed in July 2021, which is nearly 100 million US dollars jointly led by the Bank of Communications International United Cyberport Investment Venture Fund (CMF).
The Internet industry is generally winner-take-all, and players who are not in a capital level will be out quickly. However, judging from the prospectus of Kuaidou taxi hailing, although it is not "high-spirited" in the past few years, it has been steady.
Its financial data show that from 2018 to 2020, Kuaigou taxi revenue was 453 million yuan, 549 million yuan and 530 million yuan respectively, while revenue in the first three quarters of 2021 was 473 million yuan, an increase of 27.2 percent over the same period last year. From 2018 to 2020 and the first three quarters of 2021, the gross profit margin of fast dog ride-hailing was 23.0%, 31.6%, 34.6% and 36.0% respectively, showing an upward trend.
Over the past three years, with the increase in income, the gross profit margin has continued to rise, and the subsidy rate has been reduced to 2%. Compared with their peers, they are still doing the subsidy war of 1 yuan and 300 million goods festival. Fast Dog Taxi has long been out of love with the subsidy war and turned to repair internal skills and improve efficiency. In the upgrading of new energy trucks, protection of drivers' rights and interests, planned car market, sinking market and other industries in-depth layout.
For players who rely on subsidies to retain users, some have been restricted from registering new users, and some have been caught in a wave of mass layoffs. This is also the point that the Internet has been criticized, relying on financing to fight a price war to make the industry into disorderly competition, but ignoring the orderly development of its own business, and finally into the embarrassing situation of shortage of funds and layoffs.
He Song, CEO of KuaiDog car hailing, has made several interesting points before. He said that subsidies are tactics, not strategies. Subsidy war is an unlimited game of capital, which has a short-term stimulus to the industry, but can not rely on subsidies to win the real victory. The incremental market created by subsidies is actually an order belonging to the industry and does not belong to any platform.
Fast Dog Taxi pay more attention to "repair internal skills", the most representative is "restructuring the supply side", from part-time grabbing orders to dispatching orders, bringing a better experience to both drivers and users.
He who has the capacity wins the world.
To serve a good driver is to serve a good user.
Far away from the price war, fast dog taxi-hailing puts more costs on optimizing and improving the service of drivers and users, highlighting its "service advantage", which not only brings additional market share for fast dog taxi-hailing, but also allows drivers in its sound and sound ecology. really become an employer without having to worry about grabbing orders every day.
"I hope that drivers will take orders steadily on the platform of Fast Dog Taxi and make money steadily." He Song, CEO of Kuaidou taxi hailing, has said before.
This is also another advantage of fast dogs to take a taxi, with special emphasis on the driver's sense of experience. Here, I have to mention the news about the "driver protest". When you search the Internet for the news of the fast dog taxi driver protest, the only thing is the past renaming incident, while the drivers of the goods lesbians protest. there are negative news such as "price reduction order", "car sticker incident" and so on.
It can be seen that the driver's sense of belonging to the platform. As we all know, freight drivers have heavy work intensity, long hours, irregular eating and rest, which will lead to a series of physical problems for a long time. Fast Dog Taxi has set up drivers' homes in 11 cities across the country, providing drivers with places for rest, training and social interaction. After the COVID-19 epidemic, in order to alleviate the impact of the epidemic on drivers' income, Fast Dog Taxi also implemented a commission-free policy for drivers in 37 cities for a period of time.
In order to optimize the working environment and give full play to the platform effect, Fast Dog Taxi has set up a driver service committee to provide drivers with a channel to participate in platform rules and important operational decisions. The platform fully ensures the smooth communication between the platform and the driver. In this platform, the driver has the absolute right to speak.
In addition, in September 2021, Fast Dog Taxi established the first freight union, and drivers who joined the union enjoyed assistance in the event of major diseases and disasters, medical subsidies, training, psychological counseling and legal aid.
"only players with good user experience can win in the long run, and only by serving good drivers can they serve users well, so as to solve the chaos in the industry." He Song once said.
According to the Kuaigou car-hailing prospectus, Kuaigou taxi-hailing authenticates drivers with high ratings as preferred drivers and will give priority to dispatch orders to them. Since the launch of the preferred driver scheme in November 2020, the proportion of orders completed by preferred drivers has increased from 3.7% in November 2020 to 45.0% in September 2021.
In response to the policy, the transport capacity of new energy has been invested substantially.
When it comes to the logistics industry, what we have to mention is the new energy logistics vehicle. Data from tram resources statistics show that in 2021, the annual sales of new energy logistics vehicles in the country exceeded 130000, more than double that of the previous year and far exceeded expectations.
Behind the data growth, we can not do without policy support, but also can not do without the inevitable trend of green development.
In February 2021, the State Council further made it clear that priority must be given to the use of new energy logistics vehicles in the urban distribution market in the guidance on speeding up the establishment and improvement of a green and low-carbon circular development economic system. to protect the development of pure electric logistics vehicles in the field of urban distribution.
In January 2022, the State Council issued a comprehensive work plan for energy conservation and emission reduction during the 14th five-year Plan. By 2025, the sales of new energy vehicles will reach about 20% of the total sales of new cars, and the proportion of rail and waterway freight transport will further increase.
The idea of fast dog taxi-hailing coincides with the country's high-quality development, like a fish in water. According to the prospectus, in 2018, 2019, 2020 and as of September 2021, the proportion of new energy vehicles completed by Kuaigou car-hailing in mainland China was 2.3%, 6.1%, 13.4% and 25.1%, respectively, and it is predicted that 80% of the rest will be completed by new energy vehicles by 2023.
In September 2021, Fast Dog Taxi also established the Green Logistics Industry Alliance to promote the use of new energy vehicles and the digitization of the logistics industry. In the upper and lower reaches of the industrial chain, Kuaigou taxi-hailing has reached cooperation with BYD, Kairui New Energy and other enterprises to create a network effect.
At the same time, fast dog taxi-hailing promotes industry cooperation, provides drivers, convoys / dealers with operating tools and resources to achieve win-win values, and truly creates an efficient, safe and green new open freight platform.
Build a moat based on accumulated strength and long-term doctrine
Different from online ride-hailing, the number of drivers is often not the key after the same city freight reaches a certain density. The main users of freight transport in the same city are small businesses in the wholesale market, and they used to use which platform is used to subsidize heavily. Fast Dog Taxi has always adhered to the long-term doctrine, let the service go ahead, only good service can finally win the recognition of customers.
When the peer is fighting the subsidy war, it is doing the vertical layout of the industrial chain. It is precisely because of this strength that it has built a solid moat.
According to the prospectus, competition in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu became increasingly fierce with the entry of their peers from June 2020 to May 2021, when DiDi Global Inc. ate the market at a "uniform speed" through large subsidies. As a result, the number of users, orders and transactions of fast dog taxi-hailing have all declined.
In this competition, the fast dog taxi did not directly fight back, hand-to-hand combat, still steady, but instead won the market for it. With the development of the industry, the subsidy war can not be long-term, and even some enterprises face capital, business and other operational problems after subsidies, and can not rely on subsidies for long-term development. (without data support, it is difficult to reflect)
This is precisely the long-term doctrine that fast dog taxi hailing has always believed in. Only when it really contributes value to the industry and society can this company have the meaning of existence. However, with the recent disclosure of the IPO news, this low-key company has suffered a lot of "negative siege", but I believe that there will always be a day to see the moon, and the confidence given by capital is the best witness.
Logistics is a mirror reflecting the activities of the whole society. only when the industry develops healthily, orderly and scientifically can we realize commercial value and social value.
When a platform is large to a certain extent, it will not last long if only commercial value, especially commercial value, is considered at the expense of social value. The real long-term way for a company to win must be the unity of commercial and social values. Not only to create huge commercial value, but also to create huge social value. The next thing the fast dog needs to do is to continue to adhere to its long-term doctrine.