本文节选自《经济学人》2019.01.26期，Business版块中的一篇关于共享单车的报道。

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Lessons from the fall of China’s bike-sharing pioneer

the fall of：……的衰落

bike-sharing：共享单车

中国共享单车先驱的衰落带来的启示。

1

When every colour had been claimed by rival bike-sharing firms, Qicai Bike (or “seven colours”)went for the whole rainbow. Onto these flashy frames it fixed glow-in-the-dark wheels, hoping perhaps for a night-time edge over competitors. Launched in June 2017, Qicai’s dockless bicycles joined those of over 70 other bike-share startups in Chinese cities, unlocked and paid for with aQR code through smart-phone apps.

当每一个颜色都被相互竞争的单车共享公司认领，七彩单车则认领了整个彩虹。七彩单车将夜光车轮安置在华丽的车架上，希望或许一晚上，就能胜过它的竞争者。2017年6月，七彩“无桩”共享单车与超过70家的共享单车公司一样，进入了中国城市，通过智能手机二维码解锁和支付

2

Yet it seemed clear by then that it was a two-bike race—a configuration typical of China’s feverish entrepreneurial battles. That same summer, Ofo, started by students at the elite Peking University in 2014, wheeled its dockless, buttercup-yellow bikes onto the Tibetan plateau, making Lhasa its 100th city. Its main competitor, Mobike, raised over $600m, the largest single dollop of funding in bike-sharing anywhere, in a round led by Tencent, a social-media giant. Each startup was valued at a fizzy $3bn or so.

然而，那时我们很清楚这是一场两家公司的竞赛——中国狂热企业战的典型配置。那个相同的夏天，在2014年由来自北京大学的学生们创立的Ofo，推动小黄车进入青藏高原，使拉萨成为拥有小黄车的第100个城市。它的主要竞争对手摩拜，募集超过6亿美元（单车共享最大的单笔资金投入），参加了一场由腾讯这一社交媒体巨头引导的竞赛。每个公司估价约为30亿美元。

3

Now Ofo is languishing. Lawsuits over bills it has failed to pay have multiplied, from bike manufacturers, locksmiths and logistics firms. Last month a court placed its 27-year-old founder, Dai Wei, on a credit blacklist, prohibiting him from staying in fancy hotels or flying first-class. He and his firm owe suppliers at least 194m yuan ($28.6m). Recently 12m-odd app users waited for deposit refunds in a virtual queue. In a letter to staff, Mr Dai wrote that he had considered bankruptcy. This month Ofo dissolved its international unit

如今Ofo正在衰退，关于其欠款的诉讼成倍增加，这些诉讼来自于自行车生产商，锁匠和物流公司。上个月，法院将27岁的创始人戴威列入信用黑名单，禁止其入住豪华酒店或者乘坐飞机头等舱。他和他的公司欠供应商至少1.94亿人民币（2860万美元）。最近，1200万app用户正在等待退换押金。在一封给工作人员的信中共享单车经济学人，戴维说道他考虑过破产。本月，Ofo解散其国际子公司。

4

Theft and vandalism hurt all firms. Another startup, 3vbike, shut after almost all its 1,000 bikes were stolen. Cities grew tired of pile-ups clogging streets. Twelve barred new bikes, including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, in August 2017, and began to ban ads on them.

偷窃和故意毁坏会损害所有的公司。另一个创业公司—3Vbike，在几乎所有的1000辆自行车被偷后倒闭了。城市对闲置的共享单车堵塞街头越来越厌倦。2017年9月，12座城市禁止新的共享单车入城，包括北京共享单车经济学人，上海和深圳，并且禁止与其相关的广告。

5

Against such headwinds it has been a surprise to see a new challenger ascend to third place behind Ofo and Mobike. Hello-Bike recently raised 4bn yuan, some of it from Alibaba’s Ant Financial, but is showing signs of being more disciplined. In late 2017 it merged with a peer, and claims to have bikes in 300 Chinese cities. A co-founder says it was wrong to compare shared-bike services to food-delivery and ride-hailing. The former require far larger sums to be invested to win turf wars, which can lead to oversupply and waste.

面对这样的困境，这实在是令人惊奇，继Ofo和Mobike之后还有新的挑战者。哈啰出行最近筹集了40亿元，其中包括了阿里巴巴的蚂蚁金服，不过哈罗出行表现的更规范些。2017年末，它和一个同类公司合并，并声称其单车分布在中国的300个城市。一个共同创立者说：“把共享单车服务和送外卖以及打车服务相提并论是不正确的。前者需要更大的资金投入以赢得地盘之争，而者可能会导致过度供应和浪费”

6

HelloBike’s late entry let it become known in big cities with only about a third as many bikes as Ofo and Mobike deployed at their peak. It claims it will be profitable this year, mostly from 1-yuan rides. Two-fifths of these are in lower-tier cities with little competition, which has allowed it to avoid subsidy wars. But the firm has swagger, suggesting it might still get ahead of itself: “If an acquisition happens,” says Mr Li,“we will be the ones devouring others.”

由于哈啰出行上市较晚，在大城市中，与Ofo和摩拜单车在其巅峰时期部署的单车数相比，其数量仅是他们的1/3。哈啰出行声称今年将会盈利，主要来源为1元骑行，其盈利地点2/5来源于三、四线城市，那里竞争较少，且能避免补贴战。不过，这家公司有些过于自信，暗示自己可能会超越预期，李先生说：“如果发生了一次收购，我们将会是那个吞掉其他公司的一方。”

总结