STEVE JOBS liked to describe computers as “bicycles for the mind”—tools that let humans do things faster and more efficiently than their bodies would allow. The internet-connected bikes flooding the streets of urban China could be called “computers for the road”. Networked, trackable and data-generating, they are ones and zeros in aluminium form.
史蒂夫·約伯斯（Steve Jobs）喜歡把電腦比作“思維的自行車”——幫助人類突破肉體的限制， 更高效快捷地做事。 湧入中國的大街小巷的聯網自行車可謂是“道路上的電腦”。
The cycles belong to Ofo and Mobike, two startups that, taken together, have raised $2.2bn of capital and are valued at more than $4bn. Each has between 7m and 10m bikes in China, averages 30m-35m rides a day and, having entered more than 100 Chinese cities, is expanding abroad. At the start of 2016 neither firm had a single bike on a public road. Ofo’s canary-yellow cycles and Mobike’s silver-and-orange ones can now be found in cities from Adelaide to London and Singapore to Seattle.
這些自行車是Ofo和摩拜。 這兩家創業企業總共融資22億美元， 市值超過40億美元。 兩家企業各自在中國投放了700萬-1000萬輛自行車， 平均每天騎行頻率在3000-3500萬次之間；在進駐100多個城市的同時， 還在海外擴張。 2016年初， 還沒有哪家公司的共用單車出現在公共道路上。 如今Ofo的淡黃色自行車， 摩拜的銀橙色自行車已進入阿德萊德（Adelaide）、倫敦、新加坡和西雅圖。
Most city bike-sharing systems, such as the Vélib scheme in Paris, depend on fixed docks in which cycles must be parked. Ofo and Mobike instead pioneered a “dockless” bike secured with a smart lock that can be released with a smartphone app. They charge much less than public programmes. In London it costs £2 ($2.66), and typically lots of poking at an unresponsive kiosk-mounted screen, just to unlock a city-run shared bike. The equivalent with an Ofo, after an initial deposit, is 50 pence every half an hour and a few seconds to get going. In China rides cost between 0.50 and 1 yuan ($0.08-0.15) for 30 minutes.
大多數城市的共用單車體系， 包括巴黎的Vélib項目， 都依靠固定樁泊車。 Ofo和摩拜在“無樁”方面開了先河——用智慧手機應用開單， 收費也比同類公共自行車低。 在倫敦， 公共單車收費為2英鎊（2.66美元），
It helps that the firms save on physical infrastructure such as docks. But the main reason they can afford such low fees is because they have abundant funding: in June Mobike raised $600m, much of it from Tencent, a messaging, gaming and payments giant. (Qualcomm, an American chipmaker, made a smaller investment this month.) In July Ofo raised $700m in a funding round led by Alibaba, an e-commerce and payments company.
這種方式能讓企業減少在車樁等基礎設施上的投入。 他們收費低廉的主要原因是資金雄厚：6月， 摩拜獲得6億美元融資， 資金主要來自短信應用、遊戲和支付巨頭騰訊。 （美國晶片製造商高通（Qualcomm）本月也投了一些資本）7月， 在電商和支付企業阿裡巴巴領投的新一輪融資中， Ofo籌集到7億美元。
Many smaller, copycat bike-share startups have gone under. Last week it emerged that Bluegogo, a distant third in China’s bike-sharing wars, had gone bust. Its puny $90m in funding and 700,000 bikes were no match for the market leaders. Another operator shut down after 90% of its 1,200 bikes were stolen six months after launch. Many schemes have been funded with scant financial analysis by investors.
一些規模更小， 複製模式的共用自行車創業企業就沒這麼幸運了。 上周， 在共用自行車大戰中被遠遠甩在第三名的小藍單車（Bluegogo）倒閉。
Nor are Ofo and Mobike profitable, though not for want of growth. China’s bike-sharing market grew from 33m yuan in the third quarter of 2016 to 3.9bn yuan in the second quarter of 2017, says iResearch, a market-research firm. Zhang Yanqi, an Ofo co-founder, thinks China could support 300m rides a day, up from 50m-60m today. Both firms believe rental fees alone could make them profitable businesses if they stopped spending on expansion at home and abroad.
即便不進行拓展， Ofo和摩拜也難以盈利。 市場調查機構艾瑞稱， 中國共用單車市場從2016年第三季度的3300萬元發展至2017年第二季度的39億元。 Ofo聯合創始人張嚴琪認為， 中國可以滿足每天3億的騎行頻次， 遠高於當下的5000-6000萬次。 兩家公司都認為， 如果停止在國內外的擴張， 他們僅憑租金便足以盈利。
Analysts reckon the real money may be in other sources of revenue. The firms hold hundreds of millions worth of yuan in deposits collected from users. For now this money lies unutilised—Chinese law is unclear about how, if it all, it can be used. But firms hope that will change. Lending it would be one possibility. Another idea is a sort of crowdsourced logistics, asking riders to carry along packages in exchange for free rides or a small payment. Mobike already incentivises users to move its bikes around to high-demand areas by offering “red envelopes” worth a few yuan. Advertising on “billboards” within wheels is also a promising avenue. And the firms can agree with brands to offer digital coupons for shops on a rider’s route. Mobike works with McDonald’s and JD.com, an e-commerce company, to do just that.
分析人士認為， 真正的盈利可能來自其他管道。 兩家公司各自掌握著數十億元用戶押金。 這些錢仍處於閒置狀態——中國的法律對這押金的用途規定不明確。
But most value could come from data, especially used in partnership with Alibaba and Tencent. The bike-sharing firms are already becoming part of their strategic investors’ business models. Ofo uses Alibaba’s credit-rating system to allow users to rent bikes with no deposit, for example. More data could be shared. As Mr Zhang puts its, the firm’s main investor, Alibaba, “already knows how much [users] spend, where they spend it and what they spend it on. But with us they have a very strong idea of people’s total activity.” Mobike says it does not share data on a commercial basis with any firm.
但最有價值的還是資料， 特別是能與阿裡巴巴和騰訊合作利用的資料。 共用單車公司已被其戰略投資者納入自己的商業模式。 例如， Ofo利用阿裡巴巴的信用等級系統， 讓使用者可以免押金租車。 能共用的資料還有很多。 正如張嚴琪所言，
The bike wars recall the one between ride-hailing firms in China, which ended with mergers that left one player, Didi Chuxing. Rumours of a possible merger between Ofo and Mobike have been swirling for weeks. Allen Zhu, an early investor in Ofo who is pushing for a merger, says making money is terrifically hard with so much competition. But neither Ofo nor Mobike is willing publicly to admit it. “In my entire career at Ofo I have spent less than five minutes talking about a merger with Mobike,” says Mr Zhang. “I don’t see any point or meaning in merging,” maintains Mobike’s president, Hu Weiwei.
單車大戰讓人想起此前中國打車企業之間的爭奪。 那場戰爭以兼併告終， 滴滴出行統領整個市場。 這幾周不斷傳出Ofo將同摩拜合併的流言。 Ofo早期投資者朱嘯虎（Allen Zhu）也力主合併。 他表示， 競爭如此激烈， 盈利是極其困難的。 不過Ofo和摩拜都不願公開承認這一點。 張嚴琪表示， “投身Ofo以來， 我談論同摩拜合併的時間不超過五分鐘。 ”摩拜創始人胡瑋煒堅稱：“我認為合並沒有任何意義。 ”
編譯：程馨瑩
審校：黃敏華
編輯：翻吧君