Many consumers have found that the starting price of Hello bicycles has risen to 1.8 yuan, and only includes 15 minutes of riding time, and the cost of riding two kilometers for less than 20 minutes even exceeds that of buses and subways. This “price assassin” phenomenon has aroused strong dissatisfaction among consumers and made the “last mile” advantage of shared bicycles gradually disappear.
The “last mile” of the quiet price increase, users call “can’t ride”.
The May Day holiday is approaching, and those shared bicycles that have captured countless “tourist special forces” by “1 yuan arbitrary ride within 30 minutes” are being abandoned by young people after experiencing price increases again and again.
These shared bicycles are no longer the first choice for “urban slow riding”, especially Hello bicycles.
Recently, many consumers have found that riding only two kilometers of Hello bicycles is more expensive than buses in less than 20 minutes. For countless migrant workers, “I deeply felt the backstab, and I was simply temperamental”, and many consumers said that they were “shocked”.
In April this year, Wang Miao, the “North Drift”, accidentally discovered that the starting price of the Hello bicycle had risen to 1.8 yuan, and only included a 15-minute ride, “Riding 3 kilometers, it cost 3 yuan 3, which is more expensive than the subway.” Wang Miao said bluntly, “I can’t even afford to ride a shared bicycle, it’s simply unacceptable.” ”
This is not Wang Miao’s helplessness. On social platforms, there are countless complaints about the “price increase of Hello bicycles”. Some netizens said, “Lightning protection Hello (bicycle), the price will increase during holidays”, “This is to force me to buy a car”……
Of course, it’s not just the Hello bicycle that has increased in price. In fact, in recent years, shared bicycles have experienced several price increases. At first, the shared bicycle was originally 0.5 yuan/hour, but gradually changed to 1 yuan within 30 minutes; Later, the three platforms (Hello, Meituan, and Qingju) collectively raised prices, and the starting price rose to 1.5 yuan. But this time, the price increase of Hello bicycles seems to have exceeded consumers’ expectations.
After 10 years of interaction design, why did I transfer to product manager?
After the real job transfer, I found that many jobs were still beyond my imagination. The work of a product manager is indeed more complicated. Theoretically, the work of a product manager includes all aspects of the product, from market research, user research, data analysis…
View details >
It is true that the dual drive of cost pressure and market monopoly has become the confidence for the price increase of shared bicycles. At the beginning of the birth of shared bicycles, it was given the public welfare mission of “solving the last mile”, but after multiple rounds of money-burning expansion, capital transfusion decreased, and companies were forced to look for profits.
In particular, it must be faced that blindly increasing prices is not the original intention of the birth of shared bicycles, nor is it the end of the industry. Giants such as Hello should go through the painful period of the sharing economy from barbaric growth to rational operation through other means, rather than “backstabbing consumers”.
After all, losing users is equivalent to losing the market.
01 Secretly raise prices, “full of routines”
“Cycling for 11 minutes, 2.1 kilometers, spending 4.5 (yuan), isn’t it fragrant to take the bus?”
In April 2025, netizens in Jiangxi posted Hello bicycle orders on social platforms, and the comment area exploded.
Immediately, many consumers also posted orders in the comment area, saying that they had encountered the same “price assassin”, and some users said, “Why is a shared bicycle more expensive than a bus?” ”
This is not an isolated case.
Previously, Wang Miao told “Handset Tech (ID: tingtongtech)” that his family of three also used Hello bicycles when they went out to eat. At that time, she, her lover, and her children scanned the codes of bicycles on different platforms, but at the same distance of 3.9 kilometers, the cost of Hello bicycles was the most expensive, and the payment price was “3.3 yuan”, but the payment price of Meituan bicycles and Didi Qingju was “1.5 yuan”.
“I can’t understand, it’s too expensive.” Wang Miao said helplessly, “At this distance, I take the bus, subway, and ride a battery car, which is cheaper than choosing a Hello bicycle.” ”
Wang Miao also calculated such an account, taking the daily commute of 3 kilometers as an example, using a Hello bicycle (without buying a monthly card), the cost is nearly 7 yuan a day, and 140 yuan a month, “Then it is better to spend 300 yuan and buy an ordinary brand of bicycle.” Better quality and will last for many years. ”
In fact, recently, on social platforms, users in many places reported that the price of Hello bicycles has quietly adjusted without sufficient notice, and the starting price has risen from 1.5 yuan to 1.8 yuan on weekends and holidays, and the duration fee is as high as 1.5 yuan/15 minutes, far exceeding the 1.5 yuan/30 minute standard of Meituan Bicycle, Didi Qingju and other peers.
If you ride for 1 hour, the cost of a Hello bicycle may exceed 6 yuan, compared with the conventional situation of 2 yuan for buses and 4 yuan for subways, the “economic” advantage of shared bicycles can be said to be “gone”.
For users, the dissatisfaction with Hello Bicycle is concentrated in two points, one is that the price increase is inverted with public transportation, and the other is that the company’s publicity method is relatively hidden. According to media reports, the price adjustment announcement of Hello Bicycle only scrolls at the top of the customer service page, which is difficult for ordinary users to detect.
Another consumer said that the price increase of the platform may be aimed at allowing more users to become members of the platform.
For example, taking Hello Bicycle as an example, if you purchase a “12.9 yuan monthly card” for the first time, you can enjoy the monthly bicycle benefits. However, the platform also states in the purchase instructions of such “monthly cards” and “annual cards” that “only the cost of cycling can be deducted, and the difference in excess of the deduction needs to be paid.” ”
However, this benefit was directly pointed out by netizens, “Buying a card is even more pitfall, full of ‘routines’.” ”
The reason is that even if the user buys a “monthly card”, he can only deduct 1 yuan of fees in a single deduction, and if the fee exceeds 1 yuan, the user needs to pay again.
“But now there is no 1 yuan car at all, so every time the user needs to pay for it separately, and he does not enjoy many benefits.” In Wang Miao’s view, “This is simply funny.” ”
Picture: Social platform content about “Hello bicycle price increase”
Source: Xiaohongshu Screenshot of “Handset Tech”
Consumers have also continued to question a series of recent operations of Hello Bicycle. In Xiaohongshu, there are more than 90,000 notes on “Hello bicycle price increase”; On Douyin, the topic of “Hello bicycles have increased in price again” has been played more than 530,000 times.
Some netizens directly commented, “Hello, is this going to start capital harvesting”, “The blackening progress is 100%”, “This wave of Xiaolan has lost its goodwill. ”
02 Who gave the confidence to raise prices?
Among the doubts of many users, Hello Bicycle has responded to this.
Previously, Hello Bicycle customer service responded to the media that the price adjustment was due to “rising labor and operation and maintenance costs during holidays” and “has been announced through the App”.
As for the problem that the price increase of the bicycle did not notify consumers in time, the customer service said that there will be a public announcement before the price adjustment, and an announcement has also been issued at the top of the homepage of Hello Bicycle.
Despite this, compared with Meituan bicycles and Didi Qingju, the price increase of this round of Hello bicycles can be said to be “maverick”.
Judging from the billing situation of the Hello Bicycle App, at present, Hello Bicycle has designed different billing rules for weekdays, weekends and holidays. Specifically, on weekdays, the starting price of Hello bicycles is 1.5 yuan, and on weekends and holidays, the starting price is 1.8 yuan.
However, compared with Hello bicycles, the starting price of Meituan bicycles and Didi Qingju classic models is 1.5 yuan, and there is no distinction between weekdays, weekends and holidays. In addition, in terms of the time fee for bicycle use, Hello bicycle billing is also relatively high.
Picture: Didi Qingju, Hello Bicycle and Meituan Bicycle Pricing Rules
Source: Qingju, Hello and Meituan Bicycle Mini Program Screenshot of “Handset Tech”
In the view of industry insider Guo Lin, in a sense, the price increase of Hello bicycles may be due to cost pressure and market monopoly.
To a certain extent, from the perspective of the deep-seated industry ecology, the asset-heavy model of shared bicycles determines its high hardware depreciation, maintenance and scheduling costs.
According to media reports, global supply chain tensions and inflationary pressures have led to a continuous rise in raw materials (such as aluminum, steel and rubber) required for the manufacture of shared bicycles, which has undoubtedly increased the manufacturing cost of shared bicycles.
In addition, as a high-frequency means of transportation, the operation and maintenance cost of shared bicycles is also high. According to estimates, a shared bicycle costing 1,200 yuan needs to be used continuously for 200 days (4 times a day) to recoup the cost, and the difference in the off-peak season further exacerbates the financial pressure.
According to relevant statistics, the cost of a shared bicycle is 357.5-640 yuan a year, and if calculated according to the data of 10 million Hello bicycles, the annual operation and maintenance cost can reach 35.8-6.4 billion yuan.
With the continuous rise in costs and overall operation and maintenance costs, after the end of the ebb period of capital, Hello Bicycle still has not learned how to “self-hematopoiesis”.
Looking back at the development history of Hello, Ant Group was once one of the most important supporters. In 2017, Ant Group invested in Hello for the first time, and then led or followed in multiple rounds of financing, and enabled Hello to obtain Alipay, an important traffic entrance. According to media reports, as of 2024, more than 80% of Hello Bicycle’s orders come from Alipay mini programs, with a user overlap rate of 65%.
However, Hello’s continuous losses have also changed the attitude of Ant Group, and after reducing capital transfusions, Hello has also been forced to start thinking about how to make self-profit.
However, Hello’s road to profitability has been difficult.
To a certain extent, like many Internet companies, Hello obtains traffic through travel scenarios, and then monetizes through financial business to make up for the losses of its main business. However, according to the prospectus submitted by Hello in 2021, from 2018 to 2020, Hello’s net loss was 2.208 billion yuan (RMB, the same if not marked below), 1.505 billion yuan and 1.134 billion yuan respectively.
During the same period, Hello’s depreciation expenses were 1.726 billion yuan, 2.093 billion yuan and 2.473 billion yuan respectively, totaling more than 6 billion yuan, of which 90% came from shared bicycles.
The main business is lost, and Hello’s financial business has not kept up. According to media reports, up to now, Hello’s financial credit business still has the problem of mismatch of licenses and customer groups, while compared with other competitors in the market, Didi holds a small loan license, and Meituan has almost all financial licenses.
In Guo Lin’s view, perhaps it is precisely under the multiple disadvantages of limited license plates, capital costs, and customer quality that Hello Bicycle seems to be “more impatient”.
Therefore, in solving the proposition of how to “self-hematopoiesis”, Hello adopted to pass on to consumers to try to find a respite, but this also directly put Hello Bicycle into the cost-effective dilemma of shared bicycles.
Guo Lin believes that “differentiated pricing on weekdays and holidays is actually a market strategy to test users’ price sensitivity, but the dynamic pricing strategy tests the user loyalty that Hello has accumulated over the years.” ”
But in Guo Lin’s view, “the market uses ‘voting with feet’.” When a single fare even exceeds the bus, the platform will inevitably be abandoned by users. ”
03 Is the end of shared bicycles a price increase?
It is true that after the early expansion of money-burning, shared bicycles entered the oligopoly stage, and Hello Bicycles, Meituan Bicycles, and Didi Qingju formed a three-legged situation all year round.
But the price increase seems to have become the collective consensus of the industry for many years.
In fact, in 2016, when Mobike and ofo first entered the market, the initial price of shared bicycles was set at 0.5 yuan/half an hour. However, with the melee between subsequent models and brands, since 2019, shared bicycles have entered a new era of price, that is, you need to pay at least 1.5 yuan for riding for 30 minutes.
In 2022, the market will usher in an intensive wave of price increases. Hello Bicycle took the lead in announcing the price increase of cycling package cards, ranging from 20-50%, on the grounds that “the industry’s general operation and maintenance manpower investment and product depreciation cost increase”. Half a year later, Meituan Bicycle also fully benchmarked Hello Bicycle and adjusted the cycling package card to the same price level.
In particular, during the 2024 Qingming holiday, the price of a single ride of Meituan bicycles in Shanghai will increase from the original 1.5 yuan/15 minutes to 1.8 yuan/15 minutes, and the fee will increase by 1 yuan for every more than 15 minutes. At the same time, Hello Bicycle has also raised the price of cycling during holidays in some cities, and its single ride price increase is consistent with Meituan Bicycle.
In other words, the overall shared bicycle market has gradually changed from the original 0.5 yuan/hour to a billing scheme in units of 30 minutes, 20 minutes or even 15 minutes; The price also rose from 0.5-1 yuan to an average of 1.5-1.8 yuan.
This has also directly led to the fact that for so many years, the controversy in the market about “the end of shared bicycles is price increases” has not stopped.
As far as the market is concerned, at the beginning of the birth of shared bicycles, it was given the public welfare mission of “solving the last mile”. However, under the pressure of commercialization, how to find a balance between profitability and public services has become a topic that shared bicycles need to solve collectively.
In Guo Lin’s view, relying solely on price increases is not a long-term solution, “Enterprises should not always think about solving problems roughly, but should think about how to refine the situation.” ”
Previously, a number of industry insiders also said that shared bicycles can have a more diversified profit model.
For example, enterprises can use body advertising, in-app precision marketing, and use advertising and traffic monetization to open up new revenue streams.
Guo Lin also pointed out that bicycle sharing companies can further differentiate value-added services. For example, optimize scene services (exclusive routes for scenic spots) to increase users’ willingness to pay.
For consumers, the price increase of shared bicycles has indeed harmed their own interests. Wang Miao said that although the price increase of shared bicycles does not seem to be very large every time, the commuting expenses of tens of yuan are added every month, “For us ordinary people, we can eat breakfast for a few days.” ”
In fact, Wang Miao also believes that instead of raising prices, sharing bicycles is better to do better in other aspects, which can also drive more possibilities for commercialization.
For example, more transparent communication is carried out, and users are informed through push notifications, homepage pop-ups and other conspicuous methods before price adjustment to reduce information asymmetry; In terms of service, we will improve the quality of services, optimize vehicle scheduling, and expand the coverage of parking points to offset the impact of price increases by experiencing value-added.
At the same time, leading enterprises can also jointly promote industry standards, avoid vicious price competition, and jointly cultivate user habits.
Guo Lin also believes that “price increase is not the end, innovation is the way out.” In fact, the price increase turmoil represented by Hello Bicycle reflects the pain of the sharing economy from barbaric growth to rational management.
The industry must face up to the fact that when “convenience” and “affordability” cannot be combined, enterprises can only reshape their competitiveness through technological upgrading and model innovation. After all, users will only continue to be willing to pay for “value” and should not “fill the hole” for capital and corporate behavior.
Resources:
1. “Hello’s Multifaceted Dilemma: No Longer Sexy Shared Bicycles and Risky Financial Ambitions”, Source: Business Fan.
(Disclaimer: This article is for information exchange only and does not constitute any investment reference advice.) ）
