Between ofo and Mobike, which one has the better operational strategy?

In December 1922, the last emperor Puyi married Wanrong. His brother Pujia ( the movie "The Last Emperor" records that it was given by the British John Clement Johnston, but it was wrong) specially gave him a Western bicycle as a wedding gift. Puyi was very happy and rode it in the Forbidden City for three days and three nights. It is said that Puyi's dreams were all about riding a bicycle.

95 years later, at 9 a.m. on March 19, 2017, staff from embassies of various countries living near Sanlitun in Beijing skillfully entered the password on their mobile phones to unlock their cars, rode the Chinese-made yellow, orange, and blue bikes... and rushed to the Sanyuanli International Vegetable Market to shop, preparing for a sumptuous weekend.

From 1922 to 2017, a bicycle has recorded the changes in China's history over the past century and told the world that the center of the world today is in China. When the photographer was in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen and took aerial photos of thousands of rainbow bicycles being "confiscated", we suddenly realized that shared bicycles have become another major new economy in China after shared cars . However, behind this prosperity is a repeat of the tens of billions of "unicorn wars" in the online car-hailing market three years ago. Who will be the winner may be revealed this year.

The competition between the two shared bike giants represented by ofo and Mobike has quickly escalated from "Why does ofo invest in advertising while Mobike does public relations?" to "Who will win in the end, ofo or Mobike?" in just two weeks. 007 spent a week studying the differences between ofo and Mobike from three aspects: marketing strategy, product users, and commercial profitability, combined with nearly 400 votes, expert analysis, and third-party data, to comprehensively compare the differences, reasons behind the differences, and different outcomes of ofo and Mobike...

1. Marketing strategy: Mobike’s public relations and media, while ofo’s aggressive advertising?

Luo Zhenyu of Luoji Siwei once said something similar: This is an era of Internet celebrities . Corporate CEOs must work hard to become Internet celebrities, which can save a lot of advertising costs. Compared with ofo founder Dai Wei, Mobike founder Hu Weiwei , who came from a media background, seems to be more familiar with the "way of internet celebrity". She is a beautiful CEO born in the 1980s, who built her business from 0 to 10 billion, and treated her failure as charity. These "inspirational" labels and "touching" stories are often seen in the media and social circles, which gives many people the impression that Mobike is very good at public relations.

So, when an article on March 7th titled "Why does ofo invest in advertising while Mobike does public relations? 》an article came out of nowhere and quickly spread throughout the public relations and marketing circles, once again triggering a heated discussion on the effectiveness of advertising and whether public relations is useful. Many people are talking about who is better between ofo and Mobike in terms of marketing?

When the photo of Apple CEO Cook visiting ofo went viral on WeChat Moments on March 21, Mobike held a press conference on March 23 to announce the launch of the highly-anticipated "Red Envelope Bike" campaign. The public relations war between Mobike and ofo seemed to be happening everywhere. Given the intelligence of 007 fans, they must know that there is no company in the world that does not advertise at all, and there is almost no company that does not do public relations. The only difference is that each company's focus will be different.

Every emerging Internet industry that wants to impress consumers through traditional advertising always has to educate consumers and the market. Ofo is a leader in the field of shared bicycles As the first company to launch large-scale offline advertising, it launched a large-scale advertising and marketing campaign in November 2016 to promote the sharing economy and the environmentally friendly lifestyle of cycling. Bus stops, subway platforms, office building elevators...it seems that wherever there is a need for cyclists, there will be advertisements for the shared bikes. A lot of money has indeed been spent on them.

As for Mobike , don’t mistakenly think that Mobike only does public relations just because its founder Hu Weiwei and CEO Wang Xiaofeng frequently appear on TV shows and accept various interviews. In fact, Mobike has been following ofo’s advertising strategy and has been promoting advertisements , including advertisements on Weibo and client-side information flow . Not only that, perhaps sensing ofo’s strong upward momentum after the advertising, Mobike’s large-scale advertising has also been fully launched offline.

As for what other marketing methods the two companies used to attract consumers, 007 searched the Weibo and WeChat accounts of both ofo and Mobike and found that both parties launched promotional activities such as free weekend rides and recharge cashback. This shows that whether it is focusing on advertising or public relations, increasing user benefits and optimizing user experience are both killer weapons. However, 007 carefully looked through the official WeChat accounts of the two companies and found that the two major activities of "free rides on weekends" and "recharge cashback" were first launched by ofo, and then Mobike followed up on a large scale. Mobike’s simple follow-up strategy can even be traced back to last November when it launched the “buy insurance for users” policy, following ofo’s launch in May. It can be seen that Mobike’s follow-up strategy is not limited to advertising , it also seems to have learned from ofo in marketing activities ?

The WeChat push date shows Mobike’s follow-up strategy…

Even the copywriting has to be copied. Could it be that " imitation " is addictive?

Advertising and public relations are by no means black and white and cannot coexist. The battlefield between ofo and Mobike has expanded from the streets and users' mobile phones to advertising and public relations. Just in comparison. Mobike prefers to let senior executives tell stories to create public relations influence, while ofo’s advertising is larger in scale and launched earlier.

After so much analysis, readers will definitely ask: Which strategy is better?

Mobike, which had just held a press conference, did not announce any particularly good news, but ofo announced on the same day that Cook visited the company that its daily orders had exceeded 10 million, making it the fourth Internet platform in China to have daily orders exceeding 10 million after Taobao , Didi , and Meituan . Judging from the current results, Mobike is temporarily at a disadvantage due to its excessive reliance on public relations, while ofo, which has been heavily advertising, is more popular among consumers.

Why did public relations lose to advertising in this battle? 007 specially consulted several senior industry insiders:

• Mr. Guo, a senior media marketer , said: Mobike's public relations and marketing are centered on the CEO's image and story. From the title to the content, the public relations targets are more media and investors . In fact, for ordinary cyclists, they don't care much about feelings and stories. Are Luo Yonghao's feelings high? Is the story well told? Why are his Hammer phones not selling well? Moreover, when telling stories and expressing emotions, people may find it fresh at first, but it is very easy to get tired of them over time. At the same time, the more media exposure there is, the easier it is to make mistakes.
• Mr. Xiao Bingjun, a new media person born in 1988, said: Young consumers like us are very individualistic and self-centered. What we want is whether we feel good when riding. Although Mobike has high technological content, it is heavy and difficult to ride. An article titled "Why does ofo invest in advertising while Mobike does public relations?" speculated that the reason why Mobike focuses on public relations may be that its product experience is not good, so it turns to using the CEO's emotional story to enhance brand sentiment. However, in the long run, Mobike's public relations does not seem to be so effective for end users.
• Li Guowei, former PR director of GE China, said: If a company has capital support during its rapid expansion, it is cost-effective to invest heavily in advertising. Some people say that Mobike has taken the lead in public relations and ofo has fierce advertising . In fact, Hu Weiwei is not as witty as Jack Ma . Listening to her speech, I felt a little anxious. It was really hard for her...

2. Product users: Mobike’s primary consideration is the bicycle itself, while ofo’s core is the riding experience

The different marketing strategies of ofo and Mobike are based on the different corporate philosophies of the two companies, which is fully reflected in the product and user levels.

Mobike founder Hu Weiwei said in an interview: Mobike's first consideration is the durability of the vehicle, and the riding experience comes second. In other words, in order to achieve a long usage cycle of 4 years (saving subsequent operating and maintenance costs), the riding experience of some users has been sacrificed. From smart locks to GPS positioning, Mobike is full of gimmicks.

But the heavy body, difficulty in riding, and occasional failure of the smart lock also make the user experience not so good. Mobike's lack of attention to its users was also reflected in the fact that many users reported recharge bugs starting from the morning of March 19, but as of 24:00 that evening, Mobike officials had not given a specific response or solution. It is suspicious why Mobike’s public relations suddenly disappeared at this time! With such a big bug in recharge, will there be security issues with deposit and payment? Some even commented that "this is a bug marketing by Mobike at the expense of user experience."

Judging from the time when the official social media of both parties began to operate and the records of the founders proposing the "shared bicycle model", ofo is actually the original creator of China's dockless shared bicycle field. Its founder Dai Daiwei has always emphasized that shared bicycles are intended to solve users' travel problems, and it is precisely because of users that the small yellow car first considers the user experience. The most important thing is that the vehicle is easy to ride and comfortable. This can be seen from the fact that the yellow car is light, has an adjustable seat height, and has a triangular handlebar design. However, the durability of ofo bicycles has been criticized before. Recently, more and more yellow bikes have been put into use, but the number of damages has also increased simultaneously. This situation has seriously affected the user experience. Perhaps aware of the shortcomings of the product itself, ofo released the new bike Curve, which was jointly developed by ofo and 700Bike, on March 9. The bike emphasizes the spirit of craftsmanship and the ultimate experience, and even promises that it will not be affected by weather and will never have a flat tire.

As of now, who is the No. 1 in the shared bicycle market? Ofo claims that it has always been the industry leader and boss with a market share of 52%, while Mobike claims that its APP user registrations and monthly active users rank first. The data public relations war between the two sides is endless.

However, users have their say on which one is better! To this end, 007 launched an industry survey on March 18th on the question "Ofo and Mobike, which company do you have a better brand impression of?" The voting results as of March 23rd showed that the support rates of Mobike and ofo were basically the same, with ofo slightly higher.

It can be seen that from products to users, ofo and Mobike have engaged in almost "hand-to-hand combat", but from the perspective of total market share and user experience, ofo seems to have a slight advantage.

3. Commercial Profit: Mobike has not considered profitability yet, while ofo announced that it has already achieved a profit of 20%.

According to third-party data, the market capacity of shared bicycles in 50 cities in China will reach 50 million in the future, not including the vast rural market. The market size of this huge cake exceeds tens of billions, which has also attracted a large amount of domestic and foreign capital. As of March 2017, the total financing amount disclosed by ofo and Mobike reached 7 billion, of which ofo completed the D round of financing of 450 million US dollars, and Mobike announced the E round of financing of more than 100 million US dollars.

Regarding commercial profitability, which is of most concern to all walks of life, Mobike CEO Wang Xiaofeng once said, "If our profit model is clear, what do we need investors for?", which shocked the entire Internet venture capital circle; and in a recent interview with the well-known financial writer Ye Tan, he once again made it clear that profitability is not the current focus, and it is too early to talk about profitability. Now the main focus is on market expansion that is not for the purpose of profit. At the same time, he was secretive and avoided talking about the whereabouts of the 2 billion deposit.

As for commercial profitability, ofo founder and CEO Dai Wei once said: At present, ofo has found a clear profit model and has achieved a net profit of 20%. The best performing city has reached a net profit of 40%. It is very likely to achieve full profitability this year. Although ofo has not given any specific plans, the CEO's remarks to the media have given clear goals. Mr. Wang Yung-ching, the business god of Taiwan, once said: For business management and cost analysis, you must get to the bottom of it and analyze to the last point.

It is worth mentioning that ofo, which is confident that it has found a clear profit model, has taken the lead in launching a "no deposit" policy in Shanghai. As long as the Sesame Credit score is above 650, you can use the shared bikes without paying a deposit. This means that ofo has begun to shift from a "deposit model" to a "credit model." This move makes people wonder how Mobike will respond. Of course, Mobike founder Hu Weiwei’s words “if we fail, just treat it as charity” will undoubtedly make countless people begin to doubt whether Mobike has included the deposit in its charity journey? So, will it be difficult to waive the deposit?

In recent days, there has been a heated debate over whether ofo and Mobike will merge and who will acquire whom. Well-known Internet technology analyst Ding Dao Shi expressed his exclusive opinion to 007: Currently, ofo and Mobike are similar in model and are equally matched in potential energy. But in terms of convenience, Mobike is more convenient, while ofo is more comfortable to ride, and the battle between the two will not end in the short term. This is a rapidly developing industry with rapid overcapacity, which is very similar to the competition in the online ride-hailing industry back then. Various problems will definitely emerge in the second half of 2017. In addition, it is time for regulatory and management regulations to emerge to ensure the healthy development of this industry.

A user said in an interview: In terms of product design (especially the mediaization of the product), Mobike has indeed put in a lot of effort, and I admire its courage. If we talk about the model, I appreciate ofo more. I think ofo is a lock and Mobike is a bike. Ofo is a very light, platform-based business model . Maybe in the future any bicycle painted yellow and equipped with an ofo lock will be an ofo. In comparison, Mobike is more like a traditional car rental company, except it doesn’t have stores.

Putting aside the personal opinions of professionals, Mobike was listed in the category of "abnormal operations" by the Beijing Industry and Commerce Bureau some time ago. Although Mobike’s response was that it “failed to change its address in time due to the move”, it is well known that this “mark” will be permanently recorded and may affect Mobike’s future financing and listing. So, will this become the trigger for investors' trend and changes in the entire situation?

Conclusion

Jobs said: Live with a sense of responsibility and try to bring something meaningful to the world, and you will find life more meaningful. For shared bicycles, who is the final winner is not important to the general public. What is important is that the shared bicycles can truly bring them a better travel life...

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