The entrepreneurial star became a "deadbeat", the story behind ofo's fall from the "altar"!

"Let there be no unfamiliar corners in the world" is an ideal but a reality. This is exactly the portrayal of ofo, which has fallen from the "altar" to the "grave".

In March 2018, ofo founder Dai Wei was worth more than 3.5 billion yuan, making him one of the Hurun Rich List. Less than a year later, the 27-year-old Dai Wei was officially listed as a "deadbeat" by the Beijing Haidian District Court for defaulting on payments to suppliers.

According to information from the China Enforcement Information Disclosure Network, from January 1 to January 24, 2019, ofo's operating company Dongxia Datong was listed as the "person subject to execution" in 35 cases, with a total execution amount of more than 140 million yuan.

(Source: China Enforcement Information Disclosure Network, January 24)

Shared bikes were once the best application scenario for the Internet of Things, but why did they fail? What happened to ofo? Dai Wei seemed to have been sentenced to death, and articles such as "What mistakes did the 27-year-old 'king' make" were everywhere.

Looking at the precarious ofo now, can we remember that the yellow bikes were once everywhere in the streets and alleys, and Dai Wei was once a role model for young entrepreneurs? First, let’s review the glorious moments of ofo.

Ofo was founded in 2014. On September 7, 2015, ofo's shared bicycles were officially launched. On the first day of the launch, more than 200 orders poured in.

Subsequently, Huawei provided NB-IoT chips for ofo, and the "little yellow car" carried more and more IoT technologies, gradually becoming "advanced".

Ofo has also been busy, having completed 10 rounds of financing with a total amount of 15 billion yuan, bringing together capital giants such as DST, Didi Chuxing, CITIC Industry Fund, Matrix Partners China, Coatue, Jinshajiang Venture Capital, Dongfang Hongdao, Zhen Fund, angel investor Wang Gang, Shunwei Capital, etc. It has been labeled as "blown up by capital".

ofo has entered 20 countries around the world, operates more than 10 million shared bicycles worldwide, provides more than 32 million rides every day, and has more than 200 million registered users.

Since 2018, the trend of shared bikes has lost its momentum. Meituan acquired Mobike, Didi took over Bluegogo, but Dai Wei insisted on the independent operation of ofo.

In order to "survive", in addition to financing, ofo has launched a series of commercial initiatives, such as advertising within the APP, car body advertising, and corporate cooperation green cards on the B side.

It is understood that as early as August 2017, ofo jointly launched a co-branded monthly card with Jiufu Wanka, an online loan platform under Jiufu Group. In 2018, relevant product information of Jiufu Wanka also appeared on ofo's APP. Some ofo users said that they found that their accounts were tied to the online loan platform Jiufu Wanka, and that the platform could obtain users' personal information. But now the relevant information of Jiufu Wanka can no longer be found in ofo's APP.

In addition to Jiufu, ofo has cooperated with many online loan platforms. In November 2018, ofo announced in its APP: "ofo 99 yuan deposit users can upgrade to new PPmoney users with one click and enjoy permanent deposit-free riding." In addition, ofo has also cooperated with Wanda Puhui, Xiaoheiyu, Daishangqian, Shengbei and Xiaobailaihua.

An industry insider interpreted it as: "ofo's various actions are to 'band together for warmth' during the capital winter."

In addition to domestic and foreign suppliers, tens of millions of users are still experiencing this cold winter with ofo and bearing financial pressure.

In September 2018, Shanghai Phoenix Bicycle issued an announcement stating that ofo owed 68.1511 million yuan in payment for goods. Later, there were reports that Didi was short of funds or was being acquired by Didi.

ofo has been frequently hit by negative news. With the painful lesson of the bankruptcy of Bluegogo and Ming Bike, which resulted in the inability to refund deposits, users have become more vigilant this time and have submitted deposit refund applications one after another. At one point, the number of users queuing for deposit refunds exceeded 10 million. According to conservative estimates, ofo needs to refund a total deposit of at least 1 billion yuan.

It is understood that from December 18, 2018 to 14:18 on January 21, 2019, nearly 430,000 people have completed the deposit refund, but there are still more than 8 million users waiting in line for the deposit refund.

For ofo, this winter is harsh and they urgently need to try everything to alleviate the economic crisis.

In addition to "adding insult to injury", should we think about what problems have occurred in the recent application scenarios of the Internet of Things in the past? What valuable experience has ofo provided for the sharing economy? After all, ofo is a great attempt in the era of sharing economy.

First, the profit model of the sharing economy through platform operation is beyond doubt, and the Internet of Things technology revolution brought about by shared bicycles is advanced. Cao Heping, an economics professor at Peking University, introduced that the Internet industry has had five generations of operating platforms in the past 10 years, and the fifth generation is the "sharing economy." He believes that these five generations of Internet e-commerce are promoted and upgraded layer by layer, and the newer the generation, the more vitality it has. The birth and prosperity of the sharing economy conforms to the inherent logic of the development of the Internet industry.

However, in practice, in order to grab the most users, shared bikes use almost free methods to attract users. Obviously, their profit point is not the low rent, but the use of users to pay for the bike deposit to make money. The platform collects user deposits and makes capital investment. This business model is difficult to sustain.

Bike-sharing companies lack their own “blood-making” capabilities and generally adopt a heavy-asset B2C approach to operation, which means they have to bear the costs of manufacturing, maintaining, losing, damaging, and finding bikes. Whether it is ofo or Mobike, their expansion is basically driven by capital and lacks self-generated motivation.

In addition, the immaturity of technology is also the reason for the decline of shared bicycles. At present, the perception network and smart city have not been built, and relying on NFC "scanning code" cannot solve a series of problems in actual operation. Bicycles are an important part of urban transportation. When the smart city system is truly established, shared bicycles will present a smarter and simpler way, while avoiding problems such as body damage, theft, and disorderly parking. For example, integrating technologies such as facial recognition into the platform for accountability will help platform supervision.

Regarding the deposit refund, faced with 8 million users waiting in line, some netizens joked that ofo should adopt a "lottery refund" method, while most users hold the idea that "the money cannot be refunded."

However, users do not need to be discouraged. The E-Commerce Law stipulates that if the deposit is not returned in time, the relevant competent department shall order rectification within a time limit and may impose a fine of more than 50,000 yuan but less than 200,000 yuan; if the circumstances are serious, a fine of more than 200,000 yuan but less than 500,000 yuan may be imposed. Therefore, if ofo is reluctant to return the deposit of 100 yuan for a long time, it is likely to face a fine of tens of thousands of yuan.

We have also collected some "reliable" deposit refund strategies here to help you recover your balance and deposit as soon as possible.

Balance refund method

To refund the balance, users need to send 4 items of information to ofo official customer service email ofocs@ofo.com to apply for a balance refund. The information that needs to be filled in is as follows:

1. Register your mobile phone number

2. My real name

3. Registration ID number

4. Reasons for applying for balance refund

It should be noted that ofo balance is divided into [recharge balance] and [gift balance]. The [gift balance] does not support withdrawal and will be cleared after the [recharge balance] is withdrawn.

ofo official website: The balance will be refunded to the original payment account within 7 working days after applying for a refund.

Apply for ofo deposit refund using Alipay Life Account

1. In the upper right corner of the [ofo] Life column, click [Manual Customer Service]

2. Enter [Manual Customer Service] in the [Online Customer Service] dialog box, click [Transfer], and wait in line

3. Provide the customer service with your account information (including registered mobile phone number, identity information, etc.) and wait for the deposit to be refunded

Note: The waiting time for manual customer service is very long, and there are usually about 300 people in line.

Apply for ofo deposit refund on APP

1. Open the ofo shared bike app and select [Wallet] in the bottom navigation bar.

2. Click the icon in the upper right corner, enter [Wallet Management], and click [Deposit Rights]

3. Find and click [Refund Deposit] at the bottom of [My Rights], and click [Refund Deposit] in the pop-up box 4 times

4. Select the reason in [Please select the reason for refunding deposit] and click [Refund deposit] at the bottom to complete.

In general, shared bikes are a manifestation of the upgrading of the Internet and are in line with the inherent logic of industrial development. Of course, some people believe that when the overall quality of the people has not yet reached a level that matches it, all "sharing" will result in a waste of resources.

At this moment, we need to think more about the enlightenment brought to us by this case worth 20 billion yuan. In 2019, we will face new challenges and opportunities. Who can be spared in the great waves?

Produced by Global IoT Observer

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