The Paper reporter Wu Yuxin intern Yuan Yifei
Shared charging treasure has been widely controversial because of its "higher price and slower charging".
Since July, "Is it expensive to start a shared charging treasure in 4 yuan every hour?" and "The shared charging treasure is only 30% charged after running out of electricity" have rushed to Weibo for hot search many times, once again pushing the charging problem of shared charging treasure to the forefront.
Shared charging treasure is a sub-industry that appears on the "sharing" outlet. In 2017, with the popularity of the concept of sharing economy, the shared charging treasure that has been explored for several years has also been pushed to the forefront by capital. With the blessing of capital, the shared charging treasure can be quickly distributed in cities. At that time, users were free for the first 30 minutes or even 1 hour. After the specified time, 1 yuan/hour, the daily capping price was 10 yuan.
According to the research report released by Ai Media Consulting, the usage rate of shared charging treasure by consumers in restaurants, bars, dessert shops and other catering scenes is over 50%, followed by KTV, cinemas and other indoor entertainment places and supermarkets. Cross-city traffic scenes such as airports and railway stations, and scenes with long-term outdoor stay requirements such as scenic amusement parks are also the core scenes of sharing charging treasures.
In contrast, the price of shared charging treasure is not "close to the people". In Shanghai, the price of shared charging treasure is generally 3-5 yuan/hour. In popular scenic spots and business districts, the price of shared charging treasure reaches 7 yuan/hour, and in bars, the price can reach 8 yuan/hour.
Even at the lowest price of 3 yuan/hour, the price of shared charging treasure has tripled in five years.
The price of shared charging treasure is mostly above 4 yuan/hour.
On the network platform, the price and cost performance of shared charging treasure caused controversy, and many netizens voted. For example, in a poll on "Do you think it is expensive to start a shared charging treasure in 4 yuan every hour", a total of 12,000 people voted, among which 10,000 people thought it was too expensive to use it unless absolutely necessary, 646 people thought it was a little expensive, but it was acceptable, and 149 people thought it was not expensive.
How much is the shared charging treasure in Shanghai? The Paper made statistics on the prices of shared charging treasures of major brands.
Take the Oriental Pearl as an example, the price of charging treasure around it ranges from 4 to 6 yuan/hour, and the 24-hour price is mostly in 30 yuan and 99 yuan.
Located near Xintiandi, Huangpu District, the price of its shared charging treasure ranges from 4 to 7 yuan/hour, and the 24-hour price fluctuates greatly, ranging from 30 to 50 yuan, which is slightly higher than that near the Oriental Pearl.
In the shops along the street in Jiading District, the overall price of each shared charging treasure is reduced, and the overall unit price is kept at 3 or 4 yuan/hour. Most of the 24-hour charges are from 40 yuan, and some brands are lower, and the 24-hour price is set in 30 yuan.
In addition to the above-mentioned location prices, the reporter found through small program search that in a beer bar in Jing ‘an District, the shared charging treasure for searching electricity was as high as 8 yuan/hour.
In addition to the high price, what is even more criticized is the cost performance of the shared charging treasure. Different from household charging treasures, it has become a consensus that the charging speed of shared charging treasures is slow. Some netizens "spit". In the past, it took only 20 minutes to fill the mobile phone with a fast charging head, but when using a shared charging treasure, it only ensured that the mobile phone did not lose power.
In addition, the 24-hour price marked on the shared charging treasure has a low cost performance. Some netizens said that after the power in the shared charging treasure was exhausted, the power of the mobile phone only increased by 30%.
Shared charging treasure enterprise response: no price increase
On August 1st, people in the field of small electric appliances responded to The Paper that the brand has not adjusted its price this year. "At present, there is no collective price adjustment in the industry as a whole. In addition, the pricing of small electricity will refer to the market price of the industry and conform to the regulatory and market supply and demand rules. " The person said.
When a reporter from The Paper asked the customer service of Meituan Charging and Monster Charging about the price dispute in the name of consumers, the customer service of Meituan Charging told the reporter from The Paper that in order to be close to the market, Meituan charging business implemented a differentiated pricing strategy. In the process of pricing, Meituan’s charging business will make specific price setting with reference to industry quotations and suggestions from specific cooperative businesses. Its service price belongs to the market-regulated price. At present, the pricing is clearly marked in strict accordance with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Price Law. Consumers need to pay attention to the tips of specific "charging rules" and confirm whether to use charging treasure service according to actual needs.
The customer service of Monster Charging said that due to the influence of local maintenance costs and various factors, the charging standards of each store are different, and the regional agents and merchants jointly agree, just like "the prices under the mountain and on the mountain are also different".
Zhumang Technology owns two brands: Street Power and Search Power. As of the press release of The Paper, Zhumang Technology has not responded.
In previous interviews, Zhumang Technology once said in an interview with a reporter from The Paper: "The price of shared charging treasure is set according to the scene of each region. If consumers use charging treasures in the fourth and fifth lines, they are definitely not as expensive as first-tier cities. Similarly, if you use a charging treasure in a scenic spot with high tickets, it will be more expensive than a roadside shop. The brand of search for electricity is the agent mode. After purchasing the equipment for search for electricity, the agent will shop down. In fact, the pricing power of search power is not in our company, but the agents set their own prices, but we will have price constraints. This model has been very mature. "
A person in the shared charging treasure industry, who did not want to be named, told The Paper: "The shared charging treasure industry has been kidnapped by channels, over-marketized and over-competitive, and the industry has started to recruit agents and sell equipment, which will ensure the brand’s income through drought and flood, but there will also be corresponding problems in pricing. For example, monster charging is a direct-generation joint operation, while searching for electricity and small electricity are pure agent modes. "
CCTV also pointed out in the report that the price of charging treasure is generally agreed by the agent and the store. The agent is responsible for the rental cost of charging treasure, and the store only needs to bear the electricity fee of the charging station. The final income is divided by the agent, the store and the platform. Generally, the store is divided into about 30%, and the store with a large flow of people has a higher right to speak, and the platform draws about 10%. That is to say, for the one-hour charging treasure in 10 yuan, the platform earns 1 yuan, the store is divided into 3 yuan, and the agent has 6 yuan. If the consumer forgets to return it and finally buys a charging treasure, the general store will get 2 yuan, and the agent will get about 16 yuan.
Regarding the charging of shared charging treasures, the regulatory authorities have already paid attention to it.
In June 2021, the Bureau of Price Supervision and Competition of the General Administration of Market Supervision held an administrative guidance meeting with the Anti-monopoly Bureau and the Network Supervision Department, requiring eight shared consumer brand operating enterprises, including Meituan, Monster, Xiaodian, Incoming Phone, Street Power and Search Power, to rectify within a time limit, clarify pricing rules, strictly enforce clearly marked prices, and standardize market price behavior and competition behavior. At that time, the average price of each brand was 2.2-3.3 yuan/hour, and the cabinets with a price of 3 yuan or less per hour accounted for 69%-96%. Two years later, all brands strictly enforced the price tag, and at the same time, the price of shared charging treasure rose, becoming a new type of "assassin".
Since the beginning of this year, all localities have once again paid attention to the consumer complaints caused by sharing charging treasures. In March of this year, the Consumer Council of Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province conducted a survey on charging treasures shared by various brands. The survey results show that the problem of charging after return is the hardest hit by consumer complaints.
On July 24th, official website, Market Supervision Bureau of Bazhong City, Sichuan Province publicized the consumer complaint information of key operators in the second quarter of 2023. Among them, Bazhong Jingcheng Network Technology Co., Ltd. and Tongjiang County Tianmu Yinhe Network Technology Co., Ltd. failed to report the rectification to the market supervision department within the time limit, and the rectification measures were not well publicized. The reason why Bazhong Jingcheng Network Technology Co., Ltd. was publicized shows that (Monster) has the highest number of consumer complaints; Tongjiang County Tianmu Yinhe Network Technology Co., Ltd. ranks among the top in consumer complaints.
It is worth noting that due to user demand, industry research reports are still optimistic about the recovery of the shared charging treasure market. According to the "Research Report on China Shared Charging Bao Industry in 2023" released by iResearch, the annual data performance in 2022 tends to be conservative, and the industry scale is 10 billion yuan. By 2023, with the steady recovery of residents’ economic activities such as production and life, the industry boom will warm up, and the industry capacity is expected to increase to nearly 17 billion yuan, and it will exceed 70 billion yuan in 2028.
]