"Call the car" application to the Nuggets mobile internet

Newspaper reporter Guo Yi 珺

March 6, the news that the domestic mobile taxi software has started a second round of financing, financing the amount of tens of millions of dollars. Last May, rocking the car to get Sequoia capital of the millions of dollar a round of financing.

More than just a wave of cars, since last year, various types of taxi app in Apple and Android App store springing up. A few days ago, the reporter in the Apple App Store Search "Taxi", "recruit Car" and other keywords, there have been tick-tock taxi, quick taxi, a taxi to the people, and so on 10 of the balance of taxi applications. Although the name is not the same, they do the same business: Passengers through the taxi software to issue demand, the software automatically obtain the position of passengers, nearby drivers can learn the relevant information, and then the driver voice broadcast user needs, the final passenger to achieve "online ordering, offline consumption" taxi. However, as more and more entrepreneurial companies get together, and the formal taxi companies come from behind, this O2O model is still facing the local problem of solving, entrepreneurs are looking for opportunities in the transformation of the way out.

Entrepreneurs aim for a taxi "pain point"

Domestic taxi difficult problem for a long time, especially in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and other cities, the peak period of the taxi experience has become a lot of people's "pain point." Entrepreneurs see opportunities from the pain point. In the "Rocking the car" founder, Beijing Poly-Core Information Technology Co., Ltd. CEO Wang, taxi demand and demand of both sides is very simple, "passenger demand is that I can hit the car to go, taxi demand is suitable for my list, such as when I work, do not want to go in the opposite direction." "Compared to the traditional telephone service, mobile phone taxi more convenient, because no need to receive and send information through the help desk, geographical information visible, passenger demand changes can be sent immediately, driver status visible."

When you wake up in the morning and find it raining, you realize that you need to go out one hours before waiting for a taxi. Now, open the app, shake the smartphone, and send a taxi demand to all the drivers who have installed the app and online, and when they get out, the car may be downstairs. "When you take a taxi from standing on the side of the road for half an hour without a car, turn to sit and shake the phone, and ask hundreds of taxi drivers in a few seconds." "Wang that the purpose of this software is very simple, is to solve the passenger taxi and drivers find the difficult two-way problem, for passengers and taxis to build a bridge of communication." To put it simply, the emergence of a taxi application is to let passengers get on the first line of the car "master, xx go?" "Complete on the phone, breaking the information barrier at the fastest speed."

March 23, 2012, "shaking the car" landed in the Apple store. After a week on line, VCs are coming in at frequencies of two to three a day. IDG, Sequoia and other well-known investment institutions have also thrown an olive branch. After three weeks, the number of members exceeded 5000.

Wang is not the first person to eat crabs in mobile phone applications. For nearly three months, Master Zhang, a taxi driver, has rarely been on the road to "live", often in the corner of the business district, open smartphones waiting for passengers to "come to the door." What changed him was the app, "tick a cab." September 2012, tick a taxi officially online, passengers in the mobile phone software Click "I want to use the car", and send a voice to explain the specific location and where to go. Car information will be sent to the taxi driver near the passenger, the driver can be a button in the mobile phone to rob and contact passengers. And in the initial start of a taxi, the product is not perfect, tick-tock taxi background operation not only compared to power consumption, but also very consumption of traffic, coupled with the majority of drivers do not know mobile phones, many drivers to find the door to theory. Now, tick-tock taxi almost every employee is a part-time customer service staff, for taxi drivers to solve the problems, the drivers are more and more handy to use.

Pattern Wandering Grey Area

To the user, the smartphone calls the essence to provide another kind of travel choice, may immediately call the idle automobile resources, sends off your nearest car to pick you, thus solves the taxi difficulty the question. To a certain extent, this is actually a breach of the domestic taxi franchise situation. But the inescapable topic comes with this type of application that is being questioned because the "black cars" provide a platform.

Although Wang has always stressed "we do not rent, is a member of the direct rental car, we only provide information." But this is still considered a policy of the edge, the private car to provide passenger services and specialized "black cars" only separated by a vague line. Wang has revealed that, March 2012, "shaking the car" has 3 test cars have been Beijing traffic law Enforcement Brigade to "illegal" investigation. Angel investor Wang, who has seen the project "Rocking and Rolling", said: "The day the government has a document, you may fall at any time." ”

According to the reporter understand, last March on the line of the "Swing Recruit Car" test version is not a taxi call platform, but through GPS positioning your location, shaking a mobile phone, the system sent to your nearest driver to pick you up the car is the car rental company's idle vehicles. Two small driving companies and car rental companies to become "shake the car" partner. According to the "notice on promoting the healthy development of the car leasing industry" issued by the Ministry of Transport, the car leasing enterprise may not engage in the road passenger and cargo transportation business without permission. This not only makes about renting a car in an awkward position which is neither rented nor rented, but also becomes the main basis for the law enforcement department to crack down on "black taxis".

"Now, don't be surprised when the car you're rocking is a taxi," he said. "September 16, 2012," shaking the car "to its tens of thousands of members sent a message like this. This means that "shaking the car" to stop the experimental car, the taxi driver to promote the "Swing Car" system application. It has joined the taxi certification mechanism on the driver's side, and all registered drivers must pass the identity certificate and enter the taxi supervision number before they can be used.

In addition, there is a big problem in the taxi market is the difference between the peak demand and the trough. Work, work is the peak period, many people are very difficult to hit the car, because the price of taxis are regulated, not in accordance with the rules of market economy to go. To balance this contradiction, the best way is to activate the market economy price mechanism, through the price to adjust. It is reported that the launch of the "Bomb function", on the passenger can increase the form of tipping, to improve the possibility of hitting a taxi.

To be compliant, the easiest way to use a car is to "rent a car, hire a tenant." Easy to use the car's booking system, customers can book the car at the same time, automatically generated by the bus, car rental companies, driving service companies and easy to use the quartet contract between the car. For users, easy to use the car is a proxy, while acting as a leasing company and Labor company, so that can avoid being considered "black" risk.

Is the future smooth or "traffic jam"?

While saving the time of the taxi race, while increasing the income of the cab driver, what benefits will the taxi application bring to itself?

Speaking of income, tick-tock taxi and do not want to mention. When asked about how to make money in the future, Cheng Wei, a taxi founder, replied "I don't know". According to its introduction, so far, tick-tock taxi neither to the user charges, nor to the taxi driver charges, so the income is basically zero. In fact, in the earliest version, tick-tock taxis have tried to charge users. Each time you call a car, the user needs to pay 3 yuan, beep and taxi drivers each have 1.5 yuan. However, fees limit the growth of users, tick-tock taxi simply direct free.

On the commercialization side, Wang says it is not taking too much into account. "For the swing car, the profit problem is not the current focus, the most important thing is to do a good product and open up the market, so that drivers and passengers satisfied." According to its disclosure, the rocking car will open in the end of March Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen Three cities, and will be the end of this year in Tianjin, Jinan, Dalian, Chengdu and other 6 cities to establish and open the operation of the rolling recruit car.

It is worth noting that when entrepreneurial companies "call the car", from the big taxi companies and micro-credit platform applications also want to compete for passengers. It is understood that several well-known taxi companies have developed the app, such as "public Travel", "Jinjiang call car", the service is under its taxi online booking service. And on the micro-trust public platform, mobile call car business has been quietly rooting for germination. Reporters in the micro-letter public platform search "Taxi", came out to "quick taxi", "micro-taxi", "Taxi small secret" and other "plus V" account number, other not certified account is more than 20.

Predictably, a scramble for popularity between passengers and taxis has begun to spread across the app side. Mobile Call car Next development path how to go? Tick a taxi, shake a car, doodle call car etc will be blocked in a road? Industry analysts believe that mobile phone call the special place is, a platform can not serve the country, each city is an independent new battlefield: Offline resources, user habits and brand awareness are not the same, even if you want to unify the lake, is not without zoning and the possibility of treatment. Tick a taxi in the last 2 months began to gradually land in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, "Now talk about the pattern, is too early." ”

Cheng Wei said that at present in Beijing, the success rate of the car nearly 85%, not peak to 90%, in addition to Beijing, in Shanghai and Guangzhou has nearly thousands taxi size. "The maximum value of a taxi is to match the needs of users and drivers, reducing the driver's no-load efficiency." "It is a lot of entrepreneurs firmly agree with Cheng Wei this view, domestic taxi application market or will be surging."