Uber For Bikes: How “Dockless”Cycles1 Flooded China

文/尼克·范米德 譯/施佳能

Uber For Bikes: How “Dockless”Cycles1Flooded China

文/尼克·范米德 譯/施佳能

First it was the taxi-hailing2hail a taxi招手叫出租車。wars.Then it was the on-demand service3on-demand service按需服務(wù)，這里指外賣訂餐服務(wù)。wars. Now, China’s internet industry is watching another money-burning battle unfold between rival startups4startup創(chuàng)業(yè)公司。.

[2]Within the past year venture capital5venture capital風(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本。fi rms have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into rival companies,all competing to become China’s “Uber for bikes.” Their premise6premise前提；假定。is simple:Pedestrians7pedestrian行人。looking for a lift8lift搭便車。此處用以呼應(yīng)前面優(yōu)步的比喻，實(shí)際指騎車。can open their smartphones, unlock a bike parked nearby, hop on9hop on跳上。for a ride, and pay a fee once they arrive at their destination.

[3]It’s difficult to overstate10overstate夸大；夸張。how popular these services have become. On almost every street corner in China’s major cities, bikes of different shapes,sizes, and colors are lined up11line up使排成一行。next to one another.

[4]Already backed by the Chinese internet giant Tencent, a recent deal with Apple supplier Foxconn has doubled Mobike’s production capacity12capacity生產(chǎn)量；生產(chǎn)能力。to 10m bikes a year.

[5]Then there’s ofo—which started in 2015 as a Peking University project and now claims13claim獲得；贏得。10 million users in 33 cities for its bright yellow bikes―and Bluegogo, Xiaoming and around a dozen more copycat14copycat模仿者；抄襲者。fi rms, many of which have started up in the past six months.

[6]After decades of decline—when a whole generation of Chinese, embracing15embrace欣然接受，樂(lè)意采納（思想、建議等）。economic freedom, worshipped16worship熱愛(ài)；崇拜。the private car and saw cycling as backward—these sharing apps have clearly made cycling cool again in China.

Riding on the honor system

[7]While Mobike, ofo, and their many rivals are easy to use, they’re equally easy to abuse17abuse濫用。. The companies basically rest on18rest on依靠。the “honor system,”and consumer negligence19negligence疏忽；過(guò)失。poses a serious threat to their long-term viability20viability可行性。.

[8]Property managers have started to complain about bikes taking up space besides private buildings, or blocking pedestrians on the sidewalk. News reports of bike-share vehicles piling up22pile up堆積；積壓。in dumpsters, ditches, rivers, and even trees make regular appearances on Chinese social media.

[9]The dockless companies seem to be taking the issue seriously. “We rely on volunteer users to spot and report discarded23discard丟棄；拋棄。bikes. But we have also hired in-house teams speci fi cally for rounding up24round up將……聚攏起來(lái)。these dispersed25disperse分散，散開(kāi)。bikes, and taking them to high-traffic hubs or repair centers,” says Mobike’s head of communications, Xue Huang, who points out that—unlike with public bike share—cities don’t pay them a single yuan. “In the Huangpu area of central Shanghai the government has hired maintenance workers at metro stations to call on people to behave properly and keep order. It is a user education process.”

[10]If they can solve the parking problem, sustainable transport consultant Bram van Ooijen, who founded the Cycle Canton26廣州自行車一日游，由布拉姆·范奧因等人于2014年創(chuàng)立的騎行項(xiàng)目。tours of Guangzhou, believes the dockless share bike startups are great for the cause27cause事業(yè)；目標(biāo)。of cycling and for China.

“Dockless bike shares have found a niche28niche市場(chǎng)定位。where they don’t have powerful enemies,” he says. “Ride apps like Uber and Didi Chuxing upset taxi drivers,who are a powerful lobby group that can hold protests and bring the city to gridlock29gridlock僵局（因意見(jiàn)分歧而無(wú)法采取行動(dòng)）。. The only people who seem to be upset by the new share bikes,however, are illegal motorbike taxi drivers―who are missing out on30miss out on錯(cuò)失獲利的機(jī)會(huì)。business from metro stations late at night.”

Potholes31 pothole坑洼。 ahead

[11]In June, Mobike raised $600 million in a fi nancing round led by existing investor Tencent Holdings Ltd. It has now expanded to Singapore, and recently launched a pilot service for 1,000 bikes in the UK, starting in the cities of Manchester and Salford. Davis Wang,CEO and co-founder of Mobike, said that the latest financing round would step up Mobike’s pace of overseas expansion.

Its top competitor, ofo, raised $450 million in May from a range of investors including Chinese ride-sharing service Didi Chuxing.

2.2時(shí)間分布2011~2016年各月均有病例報(bào)告,發(fā)病數(shù)差異有統(tǒng)計(jì)學(xué)意義(c2=32.518,P<0.05)。發(fā)病有明顯的季節(jié)性,4月后病例逐漸增加,主要集中在5~10月,共報(bào)告病例3184例,占發(fā)病總數(shù)的68.59%;6、7、8月為發(fā)病高峰,共報(bào)告病例數(shù)1945例,占發(fā)病總數(shù)的41.90%,9月后發(fā)病數(shù)開(kāi)始下降;1、2、3、12月發(fā)病數(shù)最低,共報(bào)告病例867例,占發(fā)病總數(shù)的18.68%。見(jiàn)圖2。

[12]In the sea of yellow, orange, blue and green sharing bikes, a brand new lifestyle has shaped up on the mainland.With dozens of newcomers muscling in32muscle in強(qiáng)行進(jìn)入。on the bike-sharing market, buying more bikes to occupy the streets is far from enough to vie for33vie for搶；爭(zhēng)奪。riders. Rival startups are in a rush offering a wide range of incentives, including more frequent free-ride periods, and more lucrative34lucrative賺大錢的；獲利多的。cash gifts, all of which is tantamount to35tantamount to 無(wú)異于。burning cash.

[13]At the bottom, startups are fi ghting over services that cost riders only 0.5 to 1 yuan for a 30-minute ride on payment of a small deposit.

[14]Big-spending venture capitalists are injecting a steady fl ow of funds into the sector to underpin36underpin鞏固，支持。the ongoing bike-sharing boom, but concern about whether such an investment spree37spree無(wú)節(jié)制的狂熱行為。makes economic sense continues to mount38mount（數(shù)量等）增長(zhǎng)。, with those within the industry itself questioning the sustainability of the growth model. The “blood-making”capacity of the bike-sharing industry still remains to be seen, said Fielding Chen, Hong Kong-based Asia economist at Bloomberg Intelligence. ■

起先是一輪又一輪打車大戰(zhàn)，接著是一番又一番按需服務(wù)戰(zhàn)。眼下，中國(guó)的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)行業(yè)正展開(kāi)另一場(chǎng)創(chuàng)業(yè)公司競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手之間的燒錢大戰(zhàn)。

[2]過(guò)去的一年內(nèi)，風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資公司向相互競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的各家創(chuàng)業(yè)公司投入了數(shù)億美元，這些企業(yè)爭(zhēng)做中國(guó)“單車界的優(yōu)步”。運(yùn)營(yíng)的前提很簡(jiǎn)單：想騎車的行人只要打開(kāi)智能手機(jī)，解鎖停在附近的自行車，上車騎走，到了目的地付費(fèi)就行了。

[3]這種服務(wù)模式的受歡迎程度怎么夸大也不為過(guò)。在中國(guó)主要城市的大街小巷，不同外形、尺寸和顏色的自行車緊挨著排成一排，幾乎無(wú)處不在。

[4]摩拜已經(jīng)有了中國(guó)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨頭騰訊的支持，最近又與蘋果公司供應(yīng)商富士康達(dá)成協(xié)議，自行車生產(chǎn)量因此翻番，提升至每年1000萬(wàn)輛。

[5]再說(shuō)ofo單車，源于2015年北京大學(xué)的某個(gè)項(xiàng)目，如今小黃車擁有1000萬(wàn)用戶，遍布33座城市。還有小藍(lán)單車、小鳴單車和十幾個(gè)模仿者，多數(shù)成立于過(guò)去半年內(nèi)。

[6]自行車經(jīng)過(guò)了幾十年的衰落——信奉經(jīng)濟(jì)自由的一代中國(guó)人推崇私家車，一度把騎車視為落后——而共享軟件顯然在中國(guó)又刮起了一陣騎行風(fēng)。

騎行靠信用

[7]摩拜、ofo和許多競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手的自行車雖然很容易使用，但也同樣容易被濫用。這些企業(yè)的運(yùn)作基本上靠“信用系統(tǒng)”，消費(fèi)者不按規(guī)矩用車對(duì)這種模式的長(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)發(fā)展造成了嚴(yán)重威脅。

“隨處停車”的規(guī)則是福亦是禍。一方面，用戶在附近找到自行車的可能性更大，但另一方面，用戶可能會(huì)把車停在附近沒(méi)有人流量的偏僻位置。

[8]物業(yè)經(jīng)理開(kāi)始抱怨自行車不是占用了私人建筑旁的空間，就是堵住了人行道。共享單車堆放在垃圾桶、溝渠、河流里，甚至掛在樹(shù)上，有關(guān)報(bào)道在中國(guó)社交媒體上屢見(jiàn)不鮮。

[9]共享單車企業(yè)似乎正在認(rèn)真對(duì)待這個(gè)問(wèn)題。“我們靠志愿者用戶發(fā)現(xiàn)并報(bào)告被棄車輛。不過(guò)，我們也聘請(qǐng)了內(nèi)部團(tuán)隊(duì)專門收集零散的車輛，然后送到客流量高的交通樞紐或直接送往維修中心。”摩拜單車公關(guān)總監(jiān)黃雪說(shuō)。她指出，與公共自行車不同，市政府不會(huì)給他們一分錢。“在上海市中心黃浦區(qū)，政府在地鐵站聘用檢修人員督促人們遵守行為規(guī)范，維持秩序。這是教育用戶的過(guò)程。”

[10]布拉姆·范奧因是一名可持續(xù)交通系統(tǒng)顧問(wèn)，曾創(chuàng)辦“廣州自行車一日游”項(xiàng)目，他認(rèn)為，如果能解決亂停車的問(wèn)題，那么無(wú)樁共享單車的新興企業(yè)對(duì)騎行事業(yè)乃至中國(guó)社會(huì)都會(huì)有重大貢獻(xiàn)。

“無(wú)樁共享單車發(fā)掘的市場(chǎng)空白根本找不到敵手。”范奧因說(shuō)，“優(yōu)步和滴滴出行等打車軟件搶了出租車的生意，出租車司機(jī)是很強(qiáng)勢(shì)的游說(shuō)人群，會(huì)組織游說(shuō)抗議，讓城市陷入僵局。而唯一被共享單車搶了生意的是非法的“摩的”司機(jī)，他們深更半夜守在地鐵站外頭，只好眼睜睜看著生意溜走。

前路的險(xiǎn)坑

[11]今年6月，摩拜單車完成一輪6億美元的融資，本輪融資由其現(xiàn)有股東騰訊控股有限公司領(lǐng)投。如今，摩拜已將業(yè)務(wù)拓展至新加坡，近日進(jìn)駐英國(guó)，以曼徹斯特和索爾福德兩市作為試點(diǎn)，首批投放1000輛共享單車。摩拜科技有限公司CEO王曉峰說(shuō)，新一輪融資將加速摩拜的國(guó)際化進(jìn)程。

其頭號(hào)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手ofo也于5月從包括共乘服務(wù)平臺(tái)滴滴出行在內(nèi)的一批投資者手中獲得了4.5億美元融資。

[12]中國(guó)的城市淹沒(méi)在黃、橙、藍(lán)、綠等各色共享單車的海洋中，一種全新的生活方式正在形成。幾十個(gè)新玩家紛紛入局搶占共享單車市場(chǎng)，在爭(zhēng)奪用戶的角逐中，僅靠增加投放量用單車占領(lǐng)街頭遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不夠。相互競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的創(chuàng)業(yè)公司競(jìng)相推出獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)活動(dòng)，包括推出更多頻次的免費(fèi)騎行，發(fā)放額度更高的現(xiàn)金紅包，這些都無(wú)異于在燒錢。

[13]實(shí)際上，這些創(chuàng)業(yè)公司正在搶奪市場(chǎng)，而該服務(wù)只收取用戶小額的押金，每騎30分鐘也只收費(fèi)5角到1元。

[14]各個(gè)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資機(jī)構(gòu)不惜重金押注，為該領(lǐng)域注入了穩(wěn)定的資金流，維持共享單車的迅速發(fā)展，但是，越來(lái)越多的人擔(dān)心，這種瘋狂投資從經(jīng)濟(jì)角度上講不夠合理，也有業(yè)內(nèi)人士質(zhì)疑這種增長(zhǎng)模式的可持續(xù)性。彭博智庫(kù)分析研究中心亞洲區(qū)經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家、來(lái)自香港的陳世淵說(shuō)，共享單車行業(yè)是否有“造血”能力還有待觀察。□

單車界的優(yōu)步：無(wú)樁自行車席卷中國(guó)

ByNick Van Mead

1 dockless cycle無(wú)樁單車。相對(duì)于需要刷卡使用且必須停放在停車樁上的有樁單車，無(wú)樁單車使用便捷，隨時(shí)隨地隨借隨還，不受停車樁的限制，只需一部智能手機(jī)即可在線完成用車操作。

（譯者曾獲第五屆“《英語(yǔ)世界》杯”翻譯大賽三等獎(jiǎng)）