The battle between Uber and Shenzhou

UCAR released a set of posters today (25th), endorsed by a number of celebrities from the fields of entertainment, sports, business, entrepreneurship, and public knowledge, including Wu Xiubo, Hai Qing, Yang Lu, Su Cen, and Luo Changping. Both the images and texts clearly point to a private car service company that begins with the letter U. The advertising copy said that the "U" company was unsafe and that it made users take risks by operating illegal taxis. It also criticized the company for its incomplete service and the lack of a way to file complaints.

Presumably, Shenzhou Private Car must have thought that this show of hostility would provoke a strong reaction from the other party, thus starting a tug-of-war for headlines as sensational as the one between Xiaomi and LeTV - the good news is that the public opinion currently aroused by Shenzhou Private Car is enough to make the headlines, but the bad news is that its opponent is not a certain private car company, but the public opinion that is overwhelmingly critical of Shenzhou Private Car, even including the celebrities who endorsed it, who "turned sides" to draw a clear line.

Everyone agrees, "It's a good thing": stupid marketing, it's really low

The following is a transcript from Weibo and WeChat:

@Luo Changping : I was invited to shoot the advertisement for Shenzhou Special Car for public welfare purposes. That was the agreement at the time. When I saw the pictures, I strongly requested that they not be published and suggested that the company should not use such a method of dissemination. China Auto Rental has withdrawn all pictures of me this morning. I just discovered that some people are still forwarding this message, and friends and relatives are asking about it from time to time, so I would like to respond to them here. The text on the advertisement is inconsistent with my consistent position. I believe in the power of the market.

@王小山: In essence, this is bullying UBER and it is impossible for them to get an explanation. This naked attack on competitors to boost their own advertising is actually suspected of being illegal. However, they know that the cost of breaking the law is very low, so they just don't care.

@Mr. Yoshira (fashion critic, author of best-selling books such as the Jet Lag series and Wandering with God): Uber does have many problems in China, but as a competitor, good marketing is to surprise the audience with its own high-quality services rather than shocking the audience with the shortcomings of its competitors, which is the so-called "preferring to praise yourself rather than stepping on others". Otherwise, it is easy to arouse resistance from the audience, so Shenzhou lost right from the start.

@肥强（CEO of Wangyan Media）：#Shenzhou Special Car Beat U Poster#In the new media era, advertising creativity does need to consider whether the advertising content itself can create topics. Therefore, it is not impossible to take the initiative to PK with the opponent, or complain about the opponent, and start an online PK war, which can arouse topics and attract onlookers, but there should be a bottom line. Shenzhou's practice of directly attacking its opponents and even inciting panic seriously lacks business ethics and social responsibility. Moreover, the timing and the atmosphere of online public opinion were obviously ignored.

@柯志雄(Editor-in-Chief of FastCompany Chinese Edition): How to increase the power of single self-destruction: find enough celebrities; do something stupid enough; and then spread it clearly and loudly. China Auto Rental is amazing

Netizens' comments on some spokespersons' Weibo

Of course, the most "good" thing is that there is a huge typo in this carefully edited copy:

What the hell is this strange Shu Li? ? ?

Brainless marketing, what's wrong with it?

After the release of this set of posters, Lan Xi immediately published a quick review titled "A few opinions on China Auto Rental's "no action, no death"". Huxiu excerpted three of the points as follows:

√ The cleverness of CAR Inc. is that it dares not take direct action against the private car apps of Tencent and Alibaba, because it cannot withstand the latter's counterattack anyway, and Uber, as an outsider, just becomes the fish on the chopping board to be slaughtered. At the same time, this has inadvertently elevated Uber to the status of Google. Users who benefit from Uber's innovative services have voluntarily acted as its first firewall in the public relations battlefield.
√ The fundamental reason why China Auto Rental took this risky move is that the business model it relies on is already in jeopardy, and it can only gain a breathing space by threatening the Internet car-hailing industry represented by Uber. The operation of China Auto Rental mainly relies on purchasing vehicles to form fixed assets, and then rushing to make profits that exceed the price of the vehicles before the assets are scrapped. In addition, the costs including stores, manpower and insurance are extremely heavy, and it constitutes a zero-sum market with the private car service, so it has one foot in the grave. Just a month ago, Warburg Pincus, the major shareholder of CAR Inc., also began selling its shares.
√ A friend of Uber told me privately that according to company regulations, they will periodically report competitive events encountered in the Chinese market to the US headquarters. The reaction from the United States is usually one of curiosity. What they find most puzzling is that the mysterious Chinese Internet seems difficult to equate with "Decent". They are more indignant than humorous.

Another online self-media person, Dark Horse Liangju, directly pointed out that the marketing of Shenzhou Special Car was brainless marketing, and listed its "mistakes" one by one:

1. Treat quarreling as marketing

Chinese Internet companies are now reaching a dead end in new media marketing, thinking that fighting is marketing. Instead of focusing on users and improving user experience, they only focus on competitors. You think that by killing your competitors, you can monopolize an industry and become the winner in the market. After all, in the minds of these Internet companies, they do not want to have a fully competitive market economy, but rather want to use administrative means or external forces to dominate the market.

2. Make choices for users

Regarding Uber and other taxi-hailing apps, are they illegal taxis? Do they pose safety risks? This matter should not be decided by Shenzhou. Consumers will definitely make their own judgment. Now, the government has not yet made a final conclusion on "illegal taxis", but Shenzhou is using the banner of boycotting "illegal taxis" to coerce consumers, which will definitely make consumers unhappy. In the era of mobile Internet, the most enjoyable thing for consumers is that they can make their own choices and have the right to make active choices. At this time, Shenzhou wants to use the power of celebrities and advertisements to make choices for users. It would be strange if it didn't get criticized.

3. Not understanding the Internet’s public opinion field

The Internet's public opinion field likes to challenge the strong and sympathize with the weak. The more you want to mobilize social forces to attack your competitors, the more sympathy they will gain, and you will stand on the opposite side of all netizens. This time, China Auto Rental's marketing campaign completely disregards the characteristics of the Internet public opinion field and dares to challenge the emotions of all netizens. In the end, one can only embark on a path of no return.

Zhou Peng, the author of Tiger Sniff, also posted a long comment on WeChat Moments. He believes that -

"If this data is reliable, Uber has a 10% market share in the private car market, while Shenzhou has a 5% market share. Then Shenzhou has every right to initiate this fight. The highlight now is that Shenzhou's heavy artillery is powerful enough and Uber's counterattack is fast enough. What's not interesting is that Shenzhou's response to Uber's counterattack is too slow. If you study Uber, you will find that its public relations method has always been to cultivate self-media and flood the circle of friends. This will also be its best counterattack method when it encounters attacks, but I have not seen Shenzhou's backhand. This should be the miscalculation of traditional media in the duel with new media in terms of efficiency and voice."

Shenzhou’s response: It turns out that U is born with immunity from public opinion. Shenzhou will always resist illegal taxis.

@Shenzhou Special Car: ①The copywriter who wrote the weird uncle as the weird Shuli is being severely beaten... ②I wanted to play the wall-dong game with u, but ended up being completely wall-dangling... ③I don’t believe that u is born with immunity from public opinion! Now I believe it...④Our values ​​are very positive, we will always resist illegal private cars...⑤Always believe: Shenzhou is a safe private car...

Uber’s “response”: a press conference on the 24th

On June 24, at the strategic cooperation press conference between Uber and SOHO3Q, Uber Shanghai General Manager Wang Xiaofeng responded to the identity of "black cars".

In his opinion, there are four characteristics of illegal taxis. First, they all have non-Shanghai license plates. "If you spend 80,000 yuan to bid for a Shanghai license plate and drive an illegal taxi, you will still be caught. The cost is too high." Second, most illegal taxis are second-hand and cheap cars, and people will not drive a Mercedes to do illegal taxi business. Third, there is no uniform price and there will be a premium. Fourth, there is no way to complain.

By those standards, Uber evades almost all of them.

But this is obviously different from the recognition standards of traffic management agencies. The traffic management department believes that vehicles without legal operating licenses that privately charge passengers are suspected of operating as "black cars."

In this regard, Wang Xiaofeng believes that new technologies will be questioned and faced with friction at the beginning. For example, Alipay is not a bank but can make transfer payments, and WeChat is not a telecommunications company but can transmit voice and text. But over time, these will change and require adjustment in the process.

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