GoFun Travel achieves profitability and launches GoFun Connect to reshape the automotive industry chain

On October 23, GoFun Travel held a strategic conference in Beijing with the theme of "GoFun Connect Breakthrough, Reshaping, Empowerment", officially launching the new GoFun Connect system and announcing that after running the business model, many cities across the country have achieved profitability. GoFun Travel CEO Tan Yi said that the industry track has reached a golden turning point. Being the first to achieve profitability while exporting experience and value and empowering the industry is the only way for the shared car industry to return to its commercial essence and achieve sustainable development.

GoFun Travel CEO Tan Yi

GoFun Travel has covered 80 cities across the country since its launch more than three years ago. According to Analysys data, as of the end of September, the monthly active users of the GoFun Travel App exceeded 2 million. With the continuous improvement of operational efficiency, nearly 70% of self-operated and franchised cities have achieved profitability, creating a precedent in the shared travel industry.

Optimizing business models to solve profitability problems

According to the analysis and forecast of Roland Berger Strategy Consulting, the number of time-sharing rental cars in China will reach 600,000 in 2025; in the future, China's shared travel will reach 37 million trips per day, and the corresponding market capacity will be as high as 380 billion yuan per year. The related market capacity brought by potential demand is expected to reach 1.8 trillion yuan.

As the market trend continues to improve, it has also attracted major traditional car companies, Internet platforms, technology companies, etc. to join in. Leaders with scientific and flexible business models will become the most imaginative builders in the travel field of this era.

GoFun Travel CEO Tan Yi

GoFun Travel has evolved into another more trendy travel service with a unique "cost reduction and efficiency improvement" business approach. For example, it reduces the operating costs of vehicles through vehicle source platformization, centralized procurement, crowdsourcing and time-sharing insurance. GoFun Travel innovatively adopts the "self-operated + franchise" approach. After more than three years of refined operation of "one city, one policy", it has not only explored a scientific approach suitable for shared travel in self-operated cities, but also upgraded the franchise model from 1.0 to 3.0. It can currently realize vehicle franchising, qualification franchising and multiple franchising in the same city, and has built a national professional grid management system.

According to GoFun Travel statistics, as of now, GoFun Travel has 40 self-operated cities, of which 25 cities have achieved profitability; the number of franchised cities has reached 40, of which 29 cities have achieved profitability, and the efficiency of single-vehicle models of gasoline vehicles and electric vehicles has been continuously improved.

In addition, GoFun Travel has also worked with high-quality industry chain partners to create an innovative cooperation model to achieve the transformation from a heavy asset model to a light asset model that provides platform services. In May this year, GoFun Travel teamed up with SAIC Volkswagen, Volkswagen New Power and Volkswagen Used Cars to achieve the integration of automobile manufacturing, automobile procurement, automobile use and automobile recycling, and jointly promote automobile companies, automobile finance, second-hand car companies, and operating platforms to get what they need, forming a commercial closed loop from R&D and manufacturing to on-site operations.

After achieving profitability in multiple cities and consolidating its business framework, GoFun Travel has been optimizing its operational efficiency through intensive cultivation. This year, GoFun Travel launched the "crowdsourcing" service, making full use of idle labor in society and incorporating the user economy into the travel platform; in addition, United Insurance Company innovatively launched the "time-sharing insurance" in the industry, flexibly linking car travel with user car use, reducing the burden on the platform and protecting user rights; and dynamic pricing, dynamic price adjustment and measures to promote civilized car use have comprehensively improved the quality of user travel.

Tan Yi said, "In the early days, GoFun Travel completed the verification of business models and travel scenarios through the Internet of Vehicles and achieved profitability. Next, we will expand the business scale and application scenarios. While GoFun Travel is steadily doing a good job in its existing business, it will create a personalized, all-time and all-scenario self-driving travel mode through GoFun Connect.

Clarify development positioning and reshape the automotive industry chain

Data shows that among the hundreds of millions of private cars in China, there are at least tens of millions of idle vehicles. The automobile industry has now entered the era of inventory. The emergence of shared cars is of great significance in accelerating the coordinated development of the entire automobile industry chain, revitalizing assets, and achieving diversified distribution of benefits.

GoFun Travel CEO Tan Yi

At the press conference, Tan Yi clarified the future development positioning of GoFun Travel, hoping to share and build with the industry chain through the GoFun Connect system. GoFun Connect is a commercial system that integrates hardware, software, and operation management capabilities. Among them, the hardware includes T-box, ID+DMS system and service recorder; the software system runs through the three application ends of travel, individual car owners and crowdsourcing car services through big data + AI, SaaS; and the operation management capability is an operation system that covers GoFun's management system team, practice, experience and resources in the travel industry over the years. The system covers the entire life cycle of the vehicle from vehicle production, operation, after-market services, finance, insurance, used car sales, etc.

With the help of GoFun Connect, on the one hand, through various franchise models, dealers can easily switch to the mobile travel track, empower traditional 4S stores, expand sales, and improve operational efficiency. On the other hand, it provides OEMs with more accurate delivery and effective test rides, narrows the distance between consumers, and can achieve better vehicle listing and display effects, thereby increasing sales.

In addition, auto finance companies, insurance companies, used car companies and aftermarket service providers can achieve UBI-based vehicle asset insurance and release idle production capacity by completing the redistribution of property rights, thereby obtaining stable, reliable and continuous income and maximizing profits. Especially for individual car owners, they can leave their vehicles idle or entrust them during idle time, earn extra income by "maintaining cars with cars", and turn "depreciation" into "appreciation".

Tan Yi said that GoFun Travel hopes to reshape the entire automotive industry chain through this system and its partners, tap into potential value and achieve diversified distribution of benefits. At the same time, through the Internet of Vehicles as a technical carrier, it will connect people, cars and services and become a leading vehicle management and travel service platform.

Join hands with big names to continuously empower the entire industry chain

The launch of GoFun Connect also provides cooperation opportunities and value for all parties in the industry chain. In order to enhance the platform's big data computing power, GoFun Travel reached an in-depth cooperation with Huawei at the press conference. In the future, the two parties will cooperate in many aspects such as intelligent customer service, big data algorithms, cloud services, and Huawei's Internet of Vehicles. With the help of Huawei's computing power, cloud services, and big data (AI), GoFun's entire current business will be empowered, service levels and business efficiency will be improved, and shared travel will be more convenient.

GoFun CEO Tan Yi (left) and Huawei Enterprise BG China Large Enterprise Business General Manager Yao Jiang (right) signed the contract on the spot

Yao Qiang, general manager of Huawei Enterprise BG China's large enterprise business, said that in future cooperation with GoFun Travel, the two parties will rely on the in-depth application of big data in commercial scenarios, deepen travel, empower each other, and allow intelligent travel solutions to be implemented in more actual scenarios, providing consumers with more convenient support.

At the same time, GoFun Travel also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with SAP. The two parties will integrate advanced refined management concepts, powerful backend support capabilities, big data capabilities, and algorithm capabilities to jointly promote new models, create solutions, and jointly influence and empower the entire travel industry.

GoFun CEO Tan Yi (left) and SAP China Senior Vice President Dong Zhigang (right) signed the contract on the spot

Dong Zhigang, senior vice president of SAP China, said that the mobile travel market has broad prospects, and GoFun Connect fully demonstrates the innovation and sustainability of the industry's future development. Next, the two parties will focus on the shared travel platform to make the upstream and downstream automotive industry chains more closely integrated, and make all partners more promising in terms of commercialization and profit space.

In addition, GoFun Travel has also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Chery New Energy and WM Motor to pre-install the independently developed T-Box. With the support of massive and accurate travel big data, it will complete the "car sharing transformation" and provide users with more personalized travel services. It reduces the "communication cost" between the OEM and users, improves efficiency and profit margins, and can also provide data reference for subsequent second-hand car sales.

It started with time-sharing, but it’s not limited to time-sharing! After more than three years of development and accumulation, GoFun’s business model has been verified. Tan Yi said at the press conference that the industry has achieved the transformation from shared cars to car sharing through continuous development. He hopes that GoFun Connect will be able to better empower the entire automotive industry chain in the future, and work with all partners in the industry chain to explore new value troughs, leverage the new distribution of value in the traditional automotive industry, and work together to enter a new era of travel.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.