"Have the prices of shared power banks increased?" Some media revealed that power banks bid farewell to the one-yuan era. The topic "Some power banks are 8 yuan per hour" has reached 120 million views on Sina Weibo yesterday.

Beijing Youth Daily reporters randomly selected several large shopping malls in Beijing and conducted a sample survey on the prices of shared power banks sold in the stores. They found that although there was a price increase, the increase was not obvious.

User: The price of one-yuan shared power bank has quietly increased

According to media reports, starting in August this year, some netizens suddenly discovered that the rent had increased when renting a power bank at a high-speed train station in Fujian and a hospital in Wenjiang, Chengdu. Among them, the unit price of renting a power bank at a high-speed train station in Fujian has reached as high as 5 yuan per hour. Netizens said that they decided to rent the phone because their phone was out of battery and needed it urgently. After that, they set an alarm to return it 5 minutes in advance.

The "2019 China Shared Charging Industry Development Analysis Brief" released by Trustdata, a mobile Internet big data monitoring platform, shows that the current domestic shared power bank market has basically formed an industry pattern of "three electricity and one beast". In 2019, the number of users of the shared power bank market has reached 150 million. Among them, the market shares of the four leading companies, Jiedian, Xiaodian, Monster, and Laidian, accounted for 28.6%, 27%, 25.1%, and 15.6% respectively.

The reporter randomly selected several large shopping malls such as CapitaMall, Greenland Colorful City and Huiju in Beijing to conduct a sample survey on the prices of shared power banks sold in the stores.

The reporter found that in several shopping malls, different shared power banks also maintained prices ranging from 1.5 yuan/30 minutes to 2 yuan/hour, with cap prices ranging from 20 to 30 yuan.

However, during the visit, the reporter found that even though two adjacent stores sell the same brand of shared power banks, there are differences in prices, and the capped prices will also be different.

In this regard, a staff member from Laidian Technology, a shared power bank operator, said that the guide prices for shared power banks in various regions are different, and the rental price of each power bank is also negotiated and determined by the regional agents in each region and the merchants who put it in the stores.

Mr. Liu, a user who often rents power banks, told reporters that although the price does not seem to have increased much, after careful calculation, the power problem that could be solved with 2 yuan now costs 6 yuan, which has tripled.

The reporter also randomly asked different groups of people including couriers, college students, and couples at the scene. They all said that the price increase was within an acceptable range.

Enterprise: It is not a "collective price increase" reported online

Staff from Laidian Technology said that shared power banks are not a one-size-fits-all price increase for the entire industry and all scenarios, and there are no clear rounds of price increases. Most pricing depends on the region. Different provinces and regions have different guide pricing, but the specific pricing is negotiated and customized by the regional manager and the store where the product is placed.

But overall, the charging standards of the industry have indeed increased compared with before. The price increase is caused by a combination of factors. For example, merchants require higher pricing to obtain higher revenue sharing. Of course, more important reasons include the continued increase in channel operating costs.

The staff of Laidian Technology analyzed that there are two main reasons for the price increase. One is that fierce market competition has further increased channel costs; the other is that in some shopping malls, the initiative to increase prices is in the hands of some merchants. Sometimes merchants will take the initiative to ask stores to set higher prices in order to gain more profits.

At the same time, he said that consumers reported that regional charges reached 5 yuan or even 8 yuan an hour. Indeed, in some areas, prices have increased due to comprehensive reasons such as operation and maintenance costs and merchant requirements.

The staff reminds users that different counters have different charging standards, and different pricing may also occur in the same shopping mall. Users can only scan the QR code and see the charging amount displayed on the mobile phone page. Therefore, when consumers are charging, it is best to check the price themselves to avoid exceeding their psychological expectations.