What problems does the monthly card function launched by ofo solve?

Currently, there are three entrances to ofo’s bikes by scanning the code : its own ofo yellow bike APP, WeChat service account : ofo yellow bike, and Alipay life account : ofo shared bike . At every entrance where the bikes can be used, there is a prominent location to display ofo's monthly card.

The APP uses the form of a startup page activity display so that users can see the monthly card activity as soon as they enter the APP; in the WeChat service account, after entering the service account-click me to use the bike, it will be displayed in the form of a pop-up toast on the scan code to use the bike page. In the Alipay life account, after entering ofo shared bicycles, although the content is a bit messy, a banner is given in a prominent position to display the monthly card activity, and there is also an entrance to collect the monthly card in the top tab (marked with a red frame).

Ofo displays the monthly card activity in prominent locations at all its entrances, which shows how much importance it attaches to the monthly card. So what problems can the monthly card activity solve for ofo? From a product perspective, I have listed three:

1. A powerful tool for user operation

The current monthly card activity is one yuan per month, and ofo's usage price is calculated at 0.5 yuan per hour, and time less than one hour will be charged as one hour. In terms of price, as long as users can ride twice or more per month, the monthly card is cost-effective for them. The group that will benefit the most from such a big discount event is users who have always been accustomed to using shared bicycles. Regardless of whether they use ofo or other shared bicycles, such a big discount will encourage these users to use ofo, thereby completing user sedimentation and user activation.

There is a certain proportion among the group that uses shared bicycles, and nearly half of the users use both ofo and Mobike.

Therefore, migrating users from one platform to another is not ofo’s main concern. The most important thing is to target new users who have not used shared bicycles as the main target of attracting new users. This activity is also very suitable for attracting new users or recovering lost users. Relying on the forwarding of current social platforms, many users will join.

It is a very effective way to attract new users, promote user activity, and recall lost users . Once users settle down through such activities, the subsequent conversion of users to paid fees will become much easier.

2. Change the user's usage habits

Previously, due to this fatal bug in ofo's products, people could end the use of the vehicle early, or report the vehicle for repair and use it for free.

The ofo team has never modified this product bug. We will not discuss the reasons why they did not make changes here. Let’s talk about the extent to which the monthly card activity has changed this behavior. Previous user habits were that before the advent of smart locks, there were traditional mechanical locks, and users developed the habit of manually synchronizing the payment on the APP immediately after finishing using the bike, or even ending the use of the bike in advance before reaching the destination. Some users would exploit this loophole of ofo and make up a random reason to end the use of the bike online.

The above two irregular user behaviors are both caused by money, and they just want to spend less money. However, after the monthly card activity was launched, the monthly expenditure was fixed, and users no longer cared about the price issue, and the behaviors they had developed before were gradually changed. Previously, every time the car was used, it would be synchronized online immediately. Now, it is often the next time you open it, you will find that the previous car order confirmation has not been completed. Users no longer care about when to pay and are slowly changing their previous usage habits.

Immediately after such user behavior was changed, the most intuitive improvement was the improvement of ofo's vehicle management system. Previously, due to irregular usage behavior, users would arbitrarily click on vehicle failures, which would cause ofo's ground operation and maintenance team to spend more time dealing with bicycles that were not faulty. Once user behavior was standardized, the ground operation and maintenance team could provide more accurate vehicle maintenance and scheduling services.

3. Data mining through high-quality raw data

I think this step is ofo's ultimate goal. As we all know, the value of data will become greater and greater. Currently, the MAU of shared bicycles is about 32.64 million, and the MAU of ofo is 17.58 million.

The travel data contributed by such a large group of people, and the consumption habits, consumption capacity, user behavior, user portraits , etc. derived from these travel data can all be depicted through big data . However, due to the irregular usage in the past, the credibility of the valid data generated could not be verified, so the utilization value of the data at that time would be very low. Once ofo changes user behavior habits through the monthly card activity, the reliability of the riding data obtained will be much higher than the previous data. The conclusions drawn from these data will be much more credible.

IV. Conclusion

A good activity will bring benefits in many aspects, just like ofo's monthly card activity, which can contribute in the three modules of user operation , user behavior planning, and data mining. It can be said that the monthly card activity is effective. As shown in the graph of MAU and growth rate of TOP10 shared bicycle applications in June 2017 (above), ofo has surpassed Mobike to top the list. I think ofo's next move will be to recruit data-based talents such as data scientists and expand its data analysis department. Also, how to encourage users who already have good usage habits to continue using the ofo platform in the future.