Charging for 2 hours costs 30 yuan, and the price of shared power banks keeps rising!

       I went to a shopping mall to eat some time ago, and my phone was running out of battery, so I borrowed a shared power bank.

　　I have borrowed shared power banks several times from the same place before, so I didn't look carefully when borrowing them. When I returned them, I was shocked. It cost a total of 10 yuan for charging for more than two hours. The price has increased again.

　　▲ Charging for 2 hours, charging 10 yuan

　　At that time, I was using an iPhone 12 mini with a battery capacity of 2227mAh, and I charged it from 2% to 100%. In other words, every 1% of power (22mAh) is approximately equal to 0.1 yuan. Roughly estimated, if the charging power remains unchanged, it will cost about 20 yuan to charge a 4500mAh mobile phone.

　　A 10,000mAh Xiaomi power bank is priced at only 69 yuan.

　　The latest news shows that Jiedian continues to make profits and Monster Power may go public in the United States. It is conceivable how "attractive" the shared power bank business is. Then comes the question from users: Who gave them the courage to raise prices? !

　　It keeps rising, will it rise again?

　　This is not the first time that the price of shared power banks has increased, but in the beginning this service was actually free.

　　In 2015, shared power banks gradually appeared on the streets. In order to dispel user concerns, various brands of shared power banks adopted a free strategy to cultivate user habits.

　　During this period, the shared power bank business has been in the stage of burning money. Wang Sicong once denied it in a high-profile manner: "If shared power banks can succeed, I will eat shit and post this as a proof."

　　▲ Chen Ou publicly called out Wang Sicong. Image from: Chen Ou (Weibo)

　　What Wang Sicong didn't expect was that by 2018, some people estimated that the annual revenue of Jiedian alone exceeded 500 million yuan. According to statistics, the user scale of the entire shared power bank market exceeded 100 million that year.

　　After that, shared power banks entered the fast lane of development, with the user scale increasing by 50-100 million people per year. Some research reports even show that the scale of shared power bank users will reach 400 million in 2020.

　　▲ Data shows that the number of shared power bank users may reach more than 400 million in 2020. Image from: iiMedia Research

　　At the same time, the cost of shared power banks has increased from free to 0.5 yuan/hour, then to 1.5 yuan/hour, 3 yuan/hour and even higher. Strategies similar to big data algorithms have also been introduced. The more popular the business area and the more peak business hours, the higher the cost of shared power banks.

　　At the end of 2020, the price of shared power banks increased again during the Spring Festival, which triggered large-scale protests. Many people complained that "shared power banks started to reap the market after occupying it", "charging 8 yuan for more than an hour of use", "charging 3 yuan for 10 minutes", etc. This business, which initially focused on "convenient charging", became the target of people's criticism.

　　▲ 3 yuan for 30 minutes, the price increase of shared power banks has attracted the attention of CCTV. Image from: CCTV Finance Channel

　　According to the investigation results of CCTV reporters, some shared power banks are placed in shopping malls and scenic spots with heavy traffic. During the peak borrowing period, the charges are even as high as "30 yuan for charging for 2 hours".

　　After the incident fermented, some shared power bank brands responded: "(This) is the charging standard adjusted by stores in different regions according to market conditions, not a unified price increase by the platform."

　　What this means is that price increases are in line with market rules, and the possibility of further price increases in the future cannot be ruled out.

　　How attractive will the business be after the price increase?

　　Knowing that users are unhappy, they still raise prices. Why do shared power banks insist on going down this path?

　　Because it makes money, so much money.