Exclusive interview with Hu Weiwei, founder of Mobike: If it fails, treat it as a charity

Exclusive interview with Hu Weiwei, the founder of Mobike: If it fails, treat it as a public welfare

Mobike has now been officially operated in Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, and is also in trial operation in Shenzhen.

For office workers in big cities, if your subway entrance or bus stop is still some distance from home or work, you can open the mobile APP and find the nearest bicycle. Some people say that Mobike’s bicycle model solves the “last mile” problem for busy urbanites.

Some people are doubting its "business routine" and "profit model", some are badmouthing its life cycle, and some are advocating its smart riding?

Accepting it In an online interview with Guangzhou Daily People, Hu Weiwei, the founder of Mobike, said that he doesn’t care whether he is praised or criticized. ?So far, I have only focused on my own progress and growth.

Dialogue with Hu Weiwei: ?People with poor moral integrity are not our users?

Respond to doubts? Don’t care about being said? Routine? Attract money

Guangzhou Daily: Mobike After the bicycle came out, there were both applause and disapproval. For example, bad weather inhibits the use of vehicles, serious man-made damage, high bicycle costs, difficulty in optimizing vehicle configuration, and fierce competition. What do you think of these problems?

Hu Weiwei: "Small steps, fast running", iterate quickly Product, I think this is the quality that Internet companies need to possess today. When I first started to create Mobike, almost no one was optimistic about it. Maybe many people are using it now, but let’s let the facts speak for themselves.

Guangzhou Daily: Some people question whether bicycle sharing is a routine for Internet entrepreneurship, attracting venture capital through hype and pie-making?

Hu Weiwei: I not give a damn about. In fact, I didn’t expect to start a business. Just finish your thoughts.

Guangzhou Daily: How many registered members are there now? What is the average daily usage of bicycles?

Hu Weiwei: When Mobike had the most bicycles, one bicycle was ridden 30 times a day. We are still in our infancy and are not so keen on data guidance. We will publish data, but not from simple logic.

Response to entrepreneurship? Thinking about profit limits imagination

Guangzhou Daily: Have you found a business model?

Hu Weiwei: Actually, I don’t necessarily have to say that I must find a business model. My starting point is that this is a very meaningful and valuable thing, whether it is for society or for individuals. I would feel bad if I didn't do it.

Guangzhou Daily: Have you thought about the profit model?

Hu Weiwei: To think about it now is to limit your imagination. Growth is the biggest theme right now.

About users, people with poor moral integrity are not users

Guangzhou Daily: When you founded Mobike, did you say you believed that people are inherently good?

Hu Weiwei: Believing is one thing, but how to build a system is another. Why these people who vandalize vehicles can be caught is because technology can be used to help the police catch them.

In addition, many systems have been formulated. A person with poor public ethics will not become our user. We have established many credit systems, which are integrated with many credit reporting agencies in society and are comprehensive.

Guangzhou Daily: Will this become a stumbling block to the development of Mobike?

Hu Weiwei: All problems will become stumbling blocks, and all problems can be solved.

Guangzhou Daily: Is the damage rate of bicycles high?

Hu Weiwei: Overall, it’s not bad. We will gradually find ways to solve it. This is a process and it is too early to judge now.

Regarding competition? My biggest rival is myself

Guangzhou Daily: Some people say that it is difficult for one company to dominate this industry. For Mobike and ofo, they have a certain first-mover advantage. ?

Hu Weiwei: I have no interest in these labels anymore. Just doing something meaningful and valuable.

Guangzhou Daily: There are many competitors in the industry. How do you view this competition?

Hu Weiwei: So far, I have only focused on my own progress and growth. I won't compare.

Guangzhou Daily: There are many competitors now, including ofo and Xiaoming Bicycle. Is this also a change in the city?

Hu Weiwei: Very good, everyone is welcome to participate.

Guangzhou Daily: Who do you think is the biggest opponent now?

Hu Weiwei: Myself. The process of starting a business is actually a process of defeating yourself.

About the future? Don’t you care about being called the cycling world? Didi?

Guangzhou Daily: Some people say you are the Didi of the cycling world?

Hu Weiwei: This statement It may be easier for everyone to understand, but I don’t think it matters.

Can anyone say who Apple is? Can anyone say who Google is? Who is Facebook? They are themselves, why should I be someone else?

Guangzhou Daily: Will you consider going public in the future?

Hu Weiwei: It’s too early to think about this now.

Starting a business from a stolen car

This is the story of Hu Weiwei and her bicycle. She said: "Even if it fails, this is still a public good." ?

?I don’t need a bicycle that can intelligently record heartbeat and riding distance. What I need is: a bicycle that can be ridden anytime, anywhere. Although Hu Weiwei is a technical person, the original intention of the birth of Mobike is extremely simple.

Everything is based on her own experience of the power of female intuition. In 2004, Hu Weiwei worked in Shanghai after graduating from Zhejiang University City College. I bought my first bicycle at that time, but it was quickly stolen. Later I went to work in Beijing and bought another bicycle. I commuted 20 kilometers to and from get off work every day. Almost every time I rode home, it would be 10:30 pm, so I had no choice but to give up. .

One night in the summer of 2014, Hu Weiwei saw a row of public bicycles near Hupao Road in Hangzhou. She was very excited because she had no transportation.

However, the small booth for applying for the card has been closed, and even the computer displaying the parking pile part has gone black. The mood of anticipation is like the lights in the darkness going out again.

At that time, she began to think: Why can’t there be a more convenient usage process in the mobile Internet era? Why can’t we use an “autonomous” way to operate bicycles?

Self-built bicycle factory

So, Hu Weiwei decided to make a bicycle for free. However, this was a road that no one had traveled.

Looking back now, Hu Weiwei also lamented, "Maybe the ignorant are fearless. It seems very simple, but in practice there are thousands of small problems to solve." For every option, she basically chose the most difficult path for herself.

According to the original idea, Mobike uses solid tires, so there is no need to worry about tire blowouts; at the same time, it does not use chains, so there is no need to worry about falling chains; in addition, the body is made of all-aluminum, so there is no need to worry about rust.

The product has been designed, but finding someone to produce it has become a problem. For traditional bicycle manufacturers, to produce such an unusual bicycle requires a new production line. Hu Weiwei went to one manufacturer after another, and only a few were interested in her "innovation".

Unable to find a manufacturer, Hu Weiwei decided to do the next best thing: DIY assembly. She visited the largest bicycle market in the north, and almost all the merchants thought this was completely fanciful.

This finally drove her to a "dead end", so Hu Weiwei simply stopped working and built her own production plant.

Borrowing a bicycle is also a test of people's hearts

It was stolen, the QR code was spray-painted, fell from a building, the tire was cut, the bicycle was locked, and was ridden into a closed house. After five months of operation in the community, all kinds of man-made sabotage caused Mobike to issue a call for being seriously injured and in need of rescue. There was even an incident in which a Mobike bicycle was thrown into the Huangpu River and then smashed in anger.

?All problems will become stumbling blocks, and all problems have solutions?. At the beginning, Hu Weiwei faced questions about how to prevent man-made sabotage, but she had already prepared a "plan."

In addition to using technical means to prevent bicycles from being damaged, Hu Weiwei also formulated "game rules". Each initial user will have 100 points. User irregularities will result in point deductions. Scores below 80 Time-sharing, the cost of using the car is calculated as 100 yuan for half an hour. Instead of the price of 0.5~1 yuan/half hour.

?I am definitely not just doing a social experiment that considers social civilization and morality, or a performance art to make money. ?Faced with endless problems, Hu Weiwei remains confident.

Hu Weiwei, who was called "Auntie"

In the early morning in Beijing in early winter, the cold wind was already a bit fierce. In Beijing's 798 Creative Park, people riding Mobike bicycles pass by from time to time. However, few people noticed the Mobike headquarters that had settled here a few months ago.

This 300-square-meter office, like all start-up companies, except for the compact office area and equipment, everything is in a state of improvement. There are some quilts piled on the couch next to the desk. Sometimes when I get busy, I sleep on the floor.

We are in a bit of a mess right now. After going around in a big circle, Hu Weiwei finally found a small, quiet area on the mezzanine of the second floor of the office for the interview. Seeing that the interview equipment had not been fully debugged, she hurried to the office to give a brief explanation before quickly coming back to sit down.

This kind of meticulous execution makes it easy to understand why all the young employees in the office call her "Auntie" to her face. It's just this title that makes people who have met her feel "too wronged". Because her energy is more like that of a pretty girl in a steamy high school classroom who is immersed in solving problems.

Only when I listened to her answering questions, seemingly careless, but thinking clearly and concisely, did I suddenly feel that this girl contained some kind of life-changing power in her heart.

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