Internet carpooling and burning money battle

The carpooling area where the main rush to and from work has become another gusty air blown by “Internet+”. From the top of the list of several companies have announced the completion of tens of millions to 100 million U.S. dollars ranging from huge amounts of money, to the two giants after the merger, joined forces to enter the carpool market, all show the current heat in this area. After everything is ready, the "burn money" war in the carpool field is in sight.

"We have completed the C round of financing, this round of financing led by Chongde Investment, Yuxin Capital, YiChewang, IDG and other follow-up, scale reached 100 million US dollars, is the highest financing of the current carpool industry." Carpooling CEO Song Zhongjie Indicated. He announced the news at a press conference on May 6th.

The carpool was established in 2014. This is the third round of financing that has been completed in more than a year. Prior to this, Yiqi Lianche won a $10 million A round of financing led by IDG, which was led by a $20 million Series B round of financing led by YiChe.com. Song Zhongjie told the New Financial Reporter that investors in the first two rounds of financing participated in the third round of financing, showing investors' confidence in it. "In the Baidu [microblogging] index, App Store downloads, third-party monitoring and other data, the carpool is in the industry leading position, covering 13 cities under the line, the user volume over 4 million." Song Zhongjie said.

Carpooling is not the only company in the field of carpooling recently announced to complete financing. The car was announced on April 10 every day to obtain C-round financing, led by Baidu, Sequoia Capital and vote. In terms of car use every day, it will use C-round financing for team building, product user experience, and city promotion. It plans to expand to 60 cities by the end of the year. On the same day, another carpooling company 51 also announced the acquisition of Baidu Leading Capital and Sequoia Capital's C-round financing, which reached tens of millions of US dollars. Previously, 51 had used the car to obtain the angel investment of Xiaomi Chairman Lei Jun. Subsequently, the company successively obtained the A round of financing led by the innovation workshop and the B round financing led by Sequoia Capital. Coupled with the slight carpooling, love carpooling, and AA carpooling that have previously been announced for financing, Carpool App has already reserved sufficient ammunition through financing.

According to the data from the Venture Capital Research Center, as of March 31, 2015, a total of 15 carpooling companies had obtained financing and the total investment amount was about RMB 500 million. The amount of financing announced by the three companies in April, carpooling, carpooling and 51 car use has increased this figure to a new order of magnitude.

As a sub-sector in the travel industry, carpooling has long been dominated by some entrepreneurial companies. For the giants, first, they have not fully seen the commercial value; second, there are doubts about potential regulations and security risks. However, there are giants now eyeing this market. After the two giants in the field of taxis have completed the merger, they will formally step into the field of carpooling. A plate named Dripping and Drifting appeared recently in the Didi taxi app.

It is understood that the new Didi plate is still in the stage of recruiting owners, waiting until June 1 after the official launch of the online carpool service will be provided. Only drip vehicles won over $700 million in financing at the end of last year. After the rapid merger, the giants Alibaba and Tencent are standing behind. This kind of financial strength is no longer comparable to those of previous entrepreneurial companies. Currently, Didi Shunde’s subsidy includes a reward of RMB 20 for registered owners and a reward of RMB 100 for completing the first order. Successfully recommended car owners can also enjoy RMB 10 rewards in the form of taxi vouchers.

In the Internet market, whenever the giants enter a new field, the preferred strategy is to rely on subsidies and other means to fight price wars and increase market share by burning money. The combined drops will enter the carpool market and it is believed that a new round of subsidy war will be set in this area.

For the challenge brought by the giants' entry, Yang Yang, co-founder of Love Carpool Co., Ltd., said that as a giant, Didi needs to learn and adapt from the matching technology and product characteristics after being cut into the carpooling industry, which can be left to other companies for at least half a year. About the reaction time.

Song Zhongjie said that the giants like Didi's entry into the car-sharing market will accelerate the cultivation of the market and allow more people to recognize this market. “We have been developing this market for more than a year and have a certain degree of brand recognition. At present, there are 150,000 orders per day. It is not easy for our opponents to surpass us,” said Song Zhongjie.

In the past two years, the battle of burning money in the field of taxis is still vivid, and this scene is likely to be staged once again in the ascendant carpooling field.

Every day, the CEO of the car, Dian Guanglong, once stated in an open letter that once the Spring Festival was over, he was surprised to find that the rider field had become one of the hottest subdivisions in the direction of O2O. This idea, which was not favored at the time, has now become A big market of nearly 1 billion US dollars.

At present, there are three main forces in the field of carpooling. One is startups headed by carpools, carpooling, and car use every day; the other is giants of foreign companies represented by uber; and the third is giants who come from the taxi market. The wrestle of three forces will ultimately determine the industry's trend.

It is worth mentioning that, when it comes to the use of huge financing, the recent statements of various companies are basically the same, mainly in product development, team building and user development in three areas. After the reserve of “ammunition” through financing, the market for carpooling around the drivers and passengers is rapidly looming. Whoever can get more money, who can get more users, who can grasp the opportunity. The industry generally believes that after this round of price wars, the pattern of the carpool market will gradually be clear, and only a few carpooling companies will eventually survive.