What is Mobike’s user operation strategy?

I think you must be familiar with shared bicycles . Whether it is ofo, which is very popular among students, or Mobike, which combines technology and intelligence, you are at least a user of one of them. The battle for shared bikes has not yet ended, but the capital market can no longer hold back. When it comes to Mobike, everyone pays more attention to the product and ignores its operation . This article would like to make a brief discussion on Mobike’s user operation strategy. I hope you can correct me.

(Framework of this article)

Mobike was founded on January 27, 2015, and officially started operations in Shanghai on April 22, 2016. As of the end of September, it has deployed more than 180 bicycles in cities at home and abroad.

Back to the point, there are four core aspects of user operation: open source ( attracting new users ), cost reduction (reducing churn), maintenance (promoting activation) and conversion (stimulating purchases) . After sorting out Mobike’s official account and app, the following is concluded:

1. Open Source

1.1 Local promotion

In the early days of entering the market, the most effective way to attract new customers was field promotion . In the first week of official operation in the Wuhan market, almost all employees went out for field promotion, deploying vehicles and dispatching field promotion personnel to areas with dense traffic. The conversion rate of offline promotion is quite high (but because the market was not educated at that time, the entry cost was too high. Later, when Hellobike entered Wuhan, the initial registration volume was good without much offline promotion..)

Promotion process: introduce the product to passers-by and let them experience it - download the APP - guide registration - pay deposit - ride

At the beginning of this year, the new user system was not fully developed , and users did not receive deposit-free riding or free riding coupons after their first registration. However, due to an understanding of the pain points of travel, many users still paid for the product.

(Pictured is the early Mobike bikes launched in Wuhan)

1.2 Product Launch

As a travel product, its circulation in the market has greatly increased its brand exposure and user download and usage rate. The number of bicycles put into use in the early stage also grew exponentially, which naturally attracted a large number of users.

1.3 Invitation from old users

Many people have had this experience: when you hear that someone you know is using a certain product recently or recommends a certain product to you, you are more likely to download and use it. Therefore, almost all apps or products have established a user invitation mechanism.

Mobike’s early user invitation mechanism was not perfect:

1. The invitation tab is not conspicuous. The general routine is that after the user registers, you can tell him what rewards he will get for inviting friends to register, but Mobike does not have that.
2. The reward for old Mobike users to invite new users was just an increase of two credit points for both parties. However, the credit point system was not fully established at the time (except for price adjustments for those with less than 80 points, the function of redeeming prizes for high credit scores had not yet been opened), so these rewards were not enough to incite a user to spend a lot of money to make an invitation.
3. The initial invitation code is garbled. Users can choose to change the password, but it can only be changed once. There have been cases where the password was entered but did not take effect.

When I opened the Mobike app recently, I found that it has launched a feature where you can invite friends (in the form of sharing monthly passes) to get 7 days of free rides and your friends can get monthly passes . This reward is obviously much more attractive than the previous ones. But the only drawback is that its entrance is not very obvious.

1.4 Third-party traffic entrance

Mobike connected to the mini program at the beginning of the year . People can scan through WeChat - jump to the Mobike mini program - register/log in - unlock the bike to complete a closed loop. The large traffic of WeChat has brought a large number of users to Mobike. Later, WeChat connected Mobike to the grid , which also gave Mobike a shot in the arm to occupy the market.

In addition to WeChat, Mobike also cooperates with companies such as AutoNavi Baidu Maps , Gudong , Meituan , and Yuedongquan. Users can unlock and use the bikes through the above APPs.

However, Mobike still restricts some functions of other entrances , such as the inability to refund deposits or participate in some activities on other platforms, so users will eventually be directed to the APP.

1.5 Brand Communication

After comparing the brand strategy of ofo horizontally, it is obvious that Mobike wants to create several major brand images: technology, charity, and quality.

Anyone who knows Mobike knows its founder, Ms. Hu Weiwei . Aunt Hu has conquered many people with her friendly and positive female image.

Secondly , it is the public welfare concept that Mobike has always advocated. In addition to organizing activities in response to public welfare festivals such as Earth Hour and World Cycling Day, Mobike has also reached a strategic cooperation with the Yanran Angel Foundation to focus on children with cleft lip and palate and raise funds for them.

Another thing is the strong data and technical support behind Mobike. When Mobike was first born, it independently developed the smart lock, which laid a solid foundation for subsequent big data analysis . In order to reduce the number of maintenance times and reduce user discomfort, Mobike uses high-quality materials for both the body and tires. A good brand image will subtly influence users' decision-making habits, and a company with a good reputation is more likely to succeed.

1.6 Advertising

Advertising is divided into online and offline. Offline advertising is more common on traditional television, newspapers, outdoor electronic screens, transportation , flyers, etc., while online advertising covers more: WeChat Moments ads , forums, app opening pages, pop-ups, banners, etc.

Mobike’s advertisements are mostly seen online (after all, there is not much advertising budget invested in offline), such as Guangdiantong , WeChat Moments ads, etc.

1.7 Viral Marketing

Mobike is not as successful as ofo in marketing . Ofo first had Lu Han as its spokesperson, and later relied on the Minions IP . In comparison, the IP cooperation between Mobike and Disney has a much smaller voice. What impressed me most was a collaboration with Douyin . Douyin invited Chinese hip-hop contestants VAVA and Avgeni to endorse Mobike’s new image #天生靠得住#, and encouraged users to produce UGC through hip-hop songs and Douyin topics. However, the activity did not reach the level of sweeping the screen, which may be because Douyin itself is in its rising period and its influence is not particularly large.

2. Throttling

After talking about attracting new users, let’s talk about retention . After the user is introduced, if there is no point that makes him stay and use the product, all the previous work is in vain.

2.1 Defining Churn Criteria

First of all, we need to know what kind of users are considered lost users so that we can take targeted measures. Taking bicycles as an example, we study the average frequency of use of users, how often they use bicycles, and how many times they use them a day. If a user is far below this average, he or she is basically considered a lost user.

2.2 Loss Warning

Don’t wait until the user leaves before trying to win him back. After all, it will be difficult to win him back once he returns his deposit and uninstalls the app.

Find out under what circumstances users churn, build models through operational data, and formulate relevant operational strategies. When user behavior meets the definition of the churn model, issue warnings and urge operational personnel to conduct targeted investigations to prevent churn from occurring.

(1) Start with your own analysis

• On software: Are APP bugs unbearable for users? Existing APP cannot meet user needs? Are users not used to the APP's upgrades and iterations?
• On hardware: Users don’t like our products? The existing functions of the product cannot meet the user's pain points? Poor product experience?
• In terms of brand image: The company has had too much negative impact recently, affecting users’ decision to use the product? Users do not agree with the company's existing values?

(2) Secondly, analysis from external conditions

• On competing products: The market competition is fierce, and users have a lot of choices? Do our competitors have something that can satisfy user needs but we don’t? Are competing products cheaper and of better quality?
• In terms of national policy: government regulation? The government’s attitude is not supportive, just wait and see?
• Force majeure: bad weather? Natural disaster?

When users choose to refund their deposit, Mobike adds an extra step (in fact, most apps will do this), telling you what you will lose after refunding the deposit in an attempt to win back users. However, it is said that after the Mobike app was revised, the entrance to refund the deposit became a little more hidden.

2.3 User Recall

If users have already churned, how can we get them to use our products again? You should know that the cost of attracting new users is much higher than the cost of recalling old users.

So what to do? ——Of course, let him know that you are trying your best to keep him.

• In the system: pop-up window/banner/site information
  
• Outside the system: email/text message/WeChat/telephone, etc.

The next step is to make users aware of your necessity by holding events .

Of course, the copywriting , wording and even sending time of these notification channels must be carefully set. Even if a user who wants to use your product receives a bunch of spam text messages and emails every day, he probably won’t have a good impression of you.

The second thing is the care we provide to the user after he is recalled. He may come back and find that the interface has been revised and no one cares about him, so he is likely to run away again.

Finally, it is very difficult to recall users, so we should focus most of our attention on churn warning.

3. Maintain

3.1 User system construction

Mobike's user system construction is not perfect . Although it is the first bicycle company to establish a credit point system, in the early days, the credit points could only restrict users with scores below 80 from raising the price of the bikes, and there was no substantial reward for high-scoring users. I guess high credit scores in the later stage can get you deposit-free and more privileges.

Although there is a ranking list for credit points, it seems that it has little incentive effect, and the entrance is not obvious. You need to click on the credit score to see this page.

Secondly, Mobike also has a membership system , which only appeared after the app was revised. Users who have paid a deposit are all members and enjoy rights such as riding insurance and monthly cards, but there is no special distinction in the name. It is speculated that in the future, there may be platinum members, gold members, etc. to distinguish the titles.

(Explanation of Member Rights)

3.2 User Encouragement

(1) Cycling voucher

New users who register will receive several cycling coupons. Before the monthly pass is launched, the cycling coupons will be claimed within a short period of time after they are released.

After three consecutive failed unlocking attempts, the system will also give a riding ticket as compensation.

The maximum length of a cycling ticket that can be entered is eight characters, so it is often used to exchange resources with merchants and for advertising exposure.

(2) Free Ride

Mobike launched a three-day free ride program in collaboration with China Merchants Bank at the end of February. During that period, ofo and Mobike were free almost every day, and the free rides lasted until the end of March, from the entire day free at the beginning to free during certain time periods later. It has to be said that free riding has brought a large number of users to Mobike, but there have also been many cases of people not locking their bikes or adding private locks, disrupting the normal order of bike use.

(3) Red Envelope Car

Immediately following the free rides, Mobike launched the Red Envelope Bike at the end of March. The Red Envelope Bike was designed to help better dispatch vehicles and alleviate the tidal phenomenon of vehicle usage. Although user activity has increased to a certain extent, a group of people who "raise" the Red Envelope Bikes have inevitably emerged. From the early large-value all-day red envelope cars to the later scheduled red envelope cars and fixed-amount red envelope cars, another wave of red envelope cars appeared during the National Day, but users are required to find the red envelope car and park it at the designated location to get the red envelope (the amount of the red envelope varies depending on the location). Based on Mobike’s big database , it is speculated that red envelope cars will continue to appear in more ways in the future. For example, hiding red envelopes (users can hide a sentence and a red envelope of a certain amount in the car, and the next user will open it randomly)

(4) Fission is free for 30 days

The fission free days event was launched at the end of March. When you enter the mini program homepage, it will display "30 days of free riding for a limited time, click me to claim it!" or the entrance will also appear when you pay after the ride. Click to enter the distribution page, which can be shared to Moments or WeChat friends. Both users and friends can get random free days, and can claim them repeatedly on different sharing pages, with a cumulative limit of 30 days. This is the first time that Mobike has successfully introduced social attributes, which greatly increased user activity through group sharing and viral spread .

(5) Treasure Cart

The first time a treasure chest car (called an Easter egg car at that time) appeared was at the launch of the Hammer mobile phone . It was only available in certain cities. By riding a car with a Hammer icon for more than ten minutes, you could get an Easter egg. If you smashed it, you had a chance to get a Hammer mobile phone. This should be considered as a small test of this type of activity by Mobike.

Afterwards, 520 was upgraded to a treasure chest car. Every time you ride the car, you will get a sticker at random. After collecting the corresponding stickers, you will get a cash reward of 520 yuan. Faced with the novel gameplay + huge rewards, users naturally have a lot of fun. However, because 520 yuan is too large an amount and the probability of winning is very small, the 5.55 and 2 yuan cash prizes introduced later became more popular (the same principle as collecting five blessings).

Later on, the rewards were no longer cash, but coupons, discount coupons, skins and other virtual props were distributed in cooperation with partners. It is much less attractive than cash, and this activity has not appeared in the past two months.

(6) Mobike Achievement Hall

After the app was revised, the user's mileage, carbon emissions, time and other data were changed accordingly to health coins, environmental coins and time-saving coins. In September, the Mobike Achievement Hall was opened, where users can exchange data for prizes, most of which are third-party coupons and discount vouchers. The first products to be launched were Mobike's own peripherals, but they were snapped up, so recently they started to launch co-branded hoodies, but they require extra money to purchase. Mobike has been working hard to sell cultural products, and it is estimated that this will be a small profit point or cultural output point in the future.

(7) Social attributes

Mobike has always been a B2C product, with not many connections between users. It is speculated that a community section may be launched later. Recently, an activity was launched where users can invite their friends to scan a QR code to ride a bike and get coffee coupons at the same time, as well as an activity where users can customize their personal monthly cards to invite their friends to ride a bike. Both activities encourage interaction between users and their friends, but they are all based on social interaction among acquaintances. I don’t know if they will be expanded to social interaction with strangers in the future.

(Personalized monthly card)

3.3 Customer Service

The customer service of shared bicycles is not very good, and it is often impossible to find customer service, so Weibo and WeChat often become the main channels for customer complaints. Although there is a customer service entrance on the APP, the early problems were solved slowly, and there was no way to check the progress of problem feedback, and the customer service phone was often unreachable. Now that the customer service center has been basically completed, feedback problems can generally be resolved within 24 hours.

Mobike's APP page only has the functions of reporting breakdowns and illegal parking, and there is no entry for collecting user feedback, which is very unfavorable for product updates.

3.4 Activities

Mobike has always done better than ofo in terms of activities, including cycling events, cross-border cooperation, exchange of resources and event publicity. Moreover, Mobike has its own Mobike theme stores in various fields such as catering, hotels, post offices, neighborhoods, etc., and its cross-border cooperation is quite successful. Including the co-branded monthly card event that has been the main focus recently, it has also attracted a large number of merchants to cooperate.

(Mobike Theme Post Office)

4. Conversion

4.1 Recharge Gift

Although Mobike started its recharge and gift promotion later than ofo, the recharge and gift promotions launched in late February and mid-May still attracted a large number of users. This is also a common tactic used by businesses to retain users first.

4.2 Monthly Card

The free monthly cards launched at the end of June issued tens of millions of cards within a single day, greatly increasing the number of users. This is probably to cultivate users' car-using habits and seize market share. In any case, it is not time to make a profit yet. Later, at the end of July, a 20% off monthly card was launched. Most people would choose to buy a 3-month monthly card for 5 yuan, which is more cost-effective than a one-month card and cheaper than a year-long card. Now it has launched co-branded monthly cards and personalized monthly cards , intending to seize most of the market share through this activity.

As for the previously recharged balance, it can be used to purchase monthly cards later. It can also be considered a step to retain users.

4.3 Online Ride-hailing

Ofo and Didi Taxi started to cooperate at the beginning of the year, realizing a closed loop of short-distance + long-distance. Mobike began to connect to Shouqi Car-hailing at the end of September, and the fare can be paid by the balance, thus building a bridge between short-distance and long-distance travel and reducing the user page bounce rate. It is speculated that Mobike will connect to more modes of transportation or lifestyles in the future to form an ecological closed loop.

4.4 Surroundings

Speaking of cultural products, the most famous one is the Forbidden City Taobao . Almost every company makes peripherals, but the quality varies. Mobike once released a raincoat, but it was criticized by many people due to its poor design and low price. Recently, the sweatshirt designed in collaboration with Modern Weekly has appeared on the homepage of the Achievement Hall. Unlike the previous free redemption, this time in addition to redeeming with riding data, you need to pay 139 yuan to purchase it. However, the enthusiasm of Mobike fans made the sweatshirt sold out as soon as it went online. Many Mobike peripheral products have always been the favorites of fans. Mobike peripheral products are often sold at high prices on Xianyu, but there are still people who pay for them. From this we can see that Mobike will make great moves in producing corporate culture in the future.

A few thoughts:

The above is my brief analysis of Mobike’s user operations. There are some surprising and eye-catching parts, as well as some flaws that need to be improved. for example

• Continuous riding rewards: Whether it is a riding voucher or a virtual title, it can stimulate users to use the car and be active.
• User differentiated operation: users are divided into levels, low-frequency, medium-frequency, and high-frequency users, and different operation strategies are adopted for different users. Refined operation can not only improve user experience but also increase product loyalty.
• Strengthen social attributes: Add a community section to provide areas for users to communicate, check in, and make ride reservations based on their geographic location, refer to the KEEP community.
• Improve the customer service system and add feedback portals: quickly respond to user reports of problems, and make certain improvements to the query progress page.

Although it is impossible to predict the future direction of the market, we are optimistic about and wish Mobike will go further and further.