Mobile power Lease -- A "tuyere" for Demand and capital

"It's interesting to see how the three things that are essential to any shopper these days -- a toilet, a restaurant and a power bank -- are becoming as much a problem to be solved as going to the toilet." As the demand for battery life grows and technology advances beyond batteries, smartphones are taking up more and more of users' time, but conversely, the battery life of mobile phones is growing slowly.

Mobile power rentals, which are basically vending machines that are fitted with mobile power for people to rent. This is similar to the current popularity of bike-sharing, which is a big reason why it is touted as the "next frontier".

When it comes to mobile power leasing, it is inevitable to be linked to the popular word "sharing economy", but Lei Yun doesn't see it that way. He said: "Mobile power leasing is just a business. I build a platform to rent out my own things, and users pay to use them. Mobile power lease, the emphasis is on "lease", but not "sharing".

In 2013, the rise of the mobile power supply industry promoted a large number of manufacturers in Shenzhen, which is dominated by electronics manufacturing, to enter all aspects of contract manufacturing, OEM production and sales. However, the entry of Xiaomi and its important influence in the e-commerce industry, as well as the industry alternations and reshuffling, promoted their transformation. The founders of call technology and cloud charge bar have the background of research and development and sales of mobile power, street power to digital products e-commerce started.

Although similar to the emergence of shared bikes, but with the "sharing" concept of shared bikes, mobile power rental really caught fire and got the attention of the capital market.

With little opportunity left for the most popular shared bikes, mobile power rentals, which are very similar to shared bikes, have become popular among investors.

Founded in late 2013, the company only closed A $20 million Series A funding round in April led by SIG and Reddot China.

Although Jiedian was founded in 2016, it also completed A round of financing worth 100 million yuan in April this year. The investor is IDG Capital.

Lei Yun in an interview with Phoenix technology also revealed that the latest round of cloud charging bar financing is also about to be completed.

There are good ones and bad ones. Lei Yun had contact with product win, he said product win will not be optimistic about unmanned mobile power rental model. Product wins is also engaged in mobile power leasing, but are manual operation, product wins that this unmanaged will have moral hazard, there is a high damage rate, the relative cost of manual operation is cheaper, lower risk.

Lei Yun does not agree with this point of view, shared bikes can be found outdoors, anytime and anywhere, vandalism may not be within the scope of monitoring, but mobile power rental is indoor, not only within the scope of monitoring, relatively small space, outrageous behavior will be amplified. But he acknowledges that damage that users do not intend to cause is inevitable, but unlikely.

In summary, mobile power rental is an important means to solve the charging needs of users and improve the service level of delivery points. Multiple out of all, each take income, get profit can be said to occupy the right place at the right time and combination.

Sales of charging cables are also a source of revenue, though users expect to borrow them for free. The first purchase of a data cable is half price of 5 yuan, the second start each 10 yuan. One user complained to Phoenix Technology: "If I really take the data cable to go out, where is the reason not to take the power bank."