Shenzhou Special Car "bites" Uber: guessed the beginning but not the end

In order to make the headlines, Shenzhou Special Car has tried its best this time, directly alluding to Uber, which has always been praised for its superb marketing methods.

Yesterday, Shenzhou Special Car released a series of posters that are the boldest and most outstanding since its establishment.

These posters directly allude to its rival Uber with phrases such as "BeatU, I'm afraid of illegal taxis", "Let illegal taxis change their names", and "We don't make appointments with Uber".

These posters also had a reckless effect. After successfully dominating Weibo and WeChat , Shenzhou Special Car soon encountered a series of troubles: Luo Changping, one of the spokespersons for the real posters, "turned against" the company, "strange uncle" was written as "strange Shuli", and there was a series of pressure from comments...

While everyone was excitedly scrolling through their Moments and busy choosing sides, little did they know that the private car market had already moved in another direction due to the disruption caused by Kuaiche and People's Uber.

Is the apology sincere?

On June 25, UCAR released a set of posters titled "BeatU, I'm afraid of illegal private cars", endorsed by a group of well-known figures in film, television, sports, and entrepreneurship, including Wu Xiubo, Hai Qing, and Luo Changping. The warning signs with the letter "U" held by many celebrities can't help but remind people of Uber, another major player in the private car market.

It’s a pity that in this event that made headlines, the marketing team of UCAR only guessed the beginning but not the ending.

Such an extraordinary marketing by Shenzhou Private Car has caused great controversy. According to the reporter of China Business News, Shenzhou Private Car obviously does not have much advantage in evaluation. Some people ridicule Shenzhou Private Car for spending a lot of money to advertise for Uber, and some people accuse Shenzhou Private Car of poor marketing without caring about appearance...

In particular, a poster endorsed by Wu Xiubo mistakenly wrote "怪叔黍" as "怪蜀黎", which can be described as "a murder caused by a typo."

"This incident should be a problem of getting out of control. They did not expect such a big effect when they did this. There is no way to end a marketing campaign. The real end depends on the product and corporate strength." As a friendly competitor, a relevant person from a domestic car-hailing platform interpreted it this way yesterday.

In the face of public pressure, Shenzhou Special Car's attitude has undergone several changes.

Yesterday afternoon, Shenzhou Special Car admitted to the typos on its official Weibo, but refused to give up on the topic of boycotting black special cars, saying that "the copywriter who wrote "怪叔粟" as "怪蜀麗" is being severely beaten..."

By yesterday evening, UCAR finally apologized through its official WeChat account: "We apologize to all the netizens who are upset today. Safety may not be that important. We thought too much. We apologize to all the friends who forwarded and supported us. We made everyone scroll through the screen all day and say a lot. It was really hard."

However, due to the excessive teasing in the words, many netizens bluntly said that the apology was not sincere.

After being "disrupted" by cheap private cars

It is not easy for Shenzhou Private Car to single-handedly address the shortcomings of private car platforms under the sharing economy. After all, the private car market has already moved in another direction due to the disruption of Kuaiche and People's Uber.

Didi Express, which is seen as a direct competitor to Uber's People's Uber, has successfully attracted a large number of former Didi private car passengers to the cheaper express cars after its launch more than a month ago.

The reason is just two words - cheap.

For passengers who pay for their own travel and don't care much about the quality of service, cheap private cars that are cheaper than taxis are attractive enough.

However, recently many passengers have lamented that the express trains have little quality.

Zhou Rong (pseudonym) has basically been using express trains for travel in the past month. His most direct feeling is that nowadays any car can be used as an express train.

After experiencing a series of domestic cars such as Chery, BYD, and Geely, what really made him "collapse" was that he got a pure "black car".

"I went out at one o'clock in the afternoon and called a Didi express car. The one that came was a Southeast V5 Lingzhi, which was okay. But when I got to the car, I saw a string of small red lights hanging on the rearview mirror, which were still on. I guess the black car driver who was waiting for work next door grabbed the order directly, at least he turned off the lights." Zhou Rong complained.

A reporter from China Business News learned that after launching the Express service in May this year, Didi cut off the preferred (economical) private cars priced between 100,000 and 150,000 yuan on its private car platform, and these vehicles were classified as Express. However, as the threshold for recruiting Express vehicles continues to decrease, more and more vehicles priced far below 100,000 yuan are also joining the Express.

After Didi lowered the entry threshold for Express, People's Uber also relaxed its requirements.

This is undoubtedly a good thing for drivers.

Master Zhang's car is a Chery E5. He now accepts jobs from Didi Kuaiche and People's Uber every day. "I have only been a member for a few weeks. Kuaiche previously required that the car must be worth more than 100,000 yuan. Several of my friends changed their cars. I was short of money at the time and wanted to wait and change. As a result, the policy was later relaxed and I didn't have to change my car. They all regretted it."

May 25th was the first day that Didi Kuaidi announced that it would invest 1 billion yuan to invite people across the country to take express cars for free. According to the activity data released by Didi Kuaidi, as of 17:00 on May 25th, the total number of orders for "Didi Express" nationwide has reached nearly 1.287 million.

In response, People's Uber launched a 12% discount on fares for the entire month of June in Beijing, Didi's home base.

This is even worse news for Shenzhou Special Car, which is already more expensive than Didi Special Car.

How long can the carnival last?

As for the marketing war between Shenzhou Zhuanche and Uber, Master Zhang did not miss the opportunity to "watch" while he was busy driving to make money.

Master Zhang said: "The celebrities who endorse products won't take the special car. For individuals, Shenzhou is too expensive. Who would take it if they pay for it themselves?"

Although the model of Shenzhou Private Car renting vehicles from Shenzhou Car Rental and then hiring drivers has successfully avoided the risks of private cars, Master Zhang also complained that there is no way to enjoy the benefits of the sharing economy.

Whether it is Express passenger Zhou Rong or Express driver Master Zhang, they all have a common question: how long can Express and People's Uber last.

"It's cheaper than taxis, but this won't last long. Drivers make money every day they drive, and passengers save money every time they drive," said Zhou Rong.

Didi Express’s recent price adjustment seems to prove this point.

When it first went online, Didi Express did not set a minimum consumption. Because it was cheap, a short-distance order often cost three or five yuan. But now the minimum consumption in Beijing has been set at 10 yuan.

Guangzhou residents also discovered that starting from mid-June, the "Express Pricing Rules" in the express bus guide had increased the fare to 1.4 yuan per kilometer and 0.45 yuan per minute, and the minimum consumption had become 8 yuan.

On this point, Yidao, which has been quite low-key recently, also has something to say after watching the fire from the other side of the river.

"Whether you accept it or not, the sharing economy has become the most important and most real trend at the moment. The trend is moving forward, but the reality is another matter. Right now, users are enjoying low prices and red envelopes, and drivers are enjoying excess subsidies, and everything seems so good," said Yidao Car Rental in an article.

"When faced with a reputation built up by bubbles, everyone knows that it cannot last long, but everyone avoids talking about it, as if it were the emperor's new clothes. False data has time and again made the market marvel at its astonishing speed, but has also time and again pushed the industry into a more dangerous situation. And such noise is spreading to more industries," Yidao added.

While Yidao was reflecting, news came that Didi and Uber were continuing to raise funds.

It is reported that Didi Kuaidi is about to complete a new round of financing. It is expected that the amount of this round of financing will exceed the previously rumored US$1.5 billion and is expected to exceed US$2 billion. The valuation of Didi Kuaidi in this round of financing is approximately between US$13 billion and US$15 billion.

In order to compete with Didi Kuaidi in the Chinese market, Uber, the main competitor of Didi Kuaidi, is rumored to have started financing for its Chinese business on June 22. Investors also include Hillhouse Capital, which participated in this round of financing for Didi Kuaidi.

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.