Image source @Visual China
50 kilometers, which is about a straight-line distance from the East Fifth Ring Road to the West Fifth Ring Road in Beijing.
In this physical space, millions of people in Beijing use various means of transportation, including cars, subways, and buses, to commute and live every day. Of course, when a large number of people emerge from three-dimensional spaces such as residences, office buildings, and shopping malls to the road, traffic congestion has also become a stubborn problem that is difficult to solve in the world’s megacities.
How to solve the travel anxiety of short-distance traffic? Using new intelligent travel tools to improve the traffic efficiency of “capillaries” in the urban road network seems to have become one of the important consensuses in the transportation industry.
50 kilometers does not seem to be long, and it can basically span one or more small towns, covering “last mile” scenarios, commuting scenarios, and basic daily travel scenarios such as suburban tourism and social interaction.
No. 9 Company has seen the long-term incremental space of the track since its establishment in 2012. In the next 10 years, No. 9 Company continued to open up 50 kilometers of short-distance traffic scenarios – extending from electric balance cars to electric scooters, electric two-wheelers, all-terrain vehicles, etc., and made great achievements in every field. Innovative change.
Product layout within 50 kilometers of No. 9 company
For example, No. 9 applied artificial intelligence technology to electric scooters for the first time, so that it can realize short-distance pointing navigation and semi-autonomous driving at low speed; The technology accumulated in transportation products and robot products, through the true intelligent system, realizes a series of functions such as vehicle-machine interconnection, intelligent induction unlocking, and intelligent anti-theft.
Since its establishment, No. 9 Company has been promoting the intelligent transformation of the industry, upgrading technology and user experience, and growing together with the industry by formulating norms.
The road to becoming the king of short traffic
In April 2022, the 10-year-old No. 9 company announced for the first time that the cumulative output of its smart scooters exceeded 10 million units, occupying the first market share in the global scooter industry.
In fact, many sub-tracks of No. 9 Company are “firsts” in the industry – the first in the global market share of intelligent electric balance vehicles; the first in sales of high-end intelligent electric two-wheelers and so on.
The story of No. 9 Company originated from the balance bike. Gao Lufeng, the current chairman of No. 9 Company, and CEO Wang Ye, who graduated from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, were on vacation on the beach in Sanya, and found that the cool-looking balance car was based on the “gyroscope” commonly used in aircraft.
The two quickly produced self-developed self-balancing scooters and lowered the price from $10,000 to 10,000 yuan. Once the product was launched, it attracted wide attention from the capital market, and successfully obtained investment from well-known funds such as Xiaomi, Sequoia and Shunwei.
Bezos and Segway founder Dean Kamen
At that time, Segway was the most well-known brand of self-balancing scooters in the world, as well as a pioneer in this field, and was very popular among the elites of Silicon Valley. Amazon founder Bezos was an early investor in Segway , and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak even said publicly, “ If I’m going to the desert, there’s only one item I can take with me, it’s Segway . “
But Segway has struggled on the road to commercialization. The expensive price makes Segway only a toy for the nobles, and the biggest winners in the market are always those companies that pay attention to the needs of ordinary users. Company No. 9 is the latter.
In 2015, the three-year-old No. 9 company completed a feat of swallowing an elephant. After 6 months of anxious negotiations, it wholly acquired Segway, the originator of the American self-balancing scooter. After winning this globally influential brand, No. 9 Company became the No. 1 in the global self-balancing vehicle industry, and thus transformed into a global enterprise.
Since then, No. 9 has entered the market for electric scooters, which is also an opportunity for No. 9 to gain a firm foothold in the global market.
“If I had thought about the prospect of shared scooters earlier, Segway would have been worth at least 10 times the price.” After Segway was acquired, its last CEO, Roger Brown, should have been happily enjoying life after his exit. But when Brown saw the growing number of electric scooters on the streets, the product of the company that bought Segway Nine, he deeply regretted it.
Company Nine seized on Brown’s missed track, and less than a year after the acquisition, the company launched its first smart electric scooter. During the period from 2017 to 2020, the compound growth rate of the electric scooter revenue of No. 9 Company reached 132.22%, and has continued to lead the industry since then.
The global shared travel trend is hot. Only in 2018-2019, the monthly installed capacity of shared electric scooter applications such as Lime and Bird grew by 580% in North America, and operator customers such as Spin, Helbiz, Voi, and Whoosh appeared one after another. Operates in major cities around the world. It is No. 9 that supplies these shared scooter operators.
Nine intelligent electric scooter
On the short-distance traffic track within 0-20km, No. 9 has become an important player in the world. Since then, on the one hand, No. 9 has been vertically deployed along the balance car and scooter within 20km, and has continuously promoted the intelligent upgrade of products. It has simultaneously launched popular products such as kart kits, balance wheels, and all-terrain vehicles, and has continued to expand B-side sharing business. , improve operational efficiency through artificial intelligence technology; on the other hand, No. 9 Company continues to expand horizontally to 50 kilometers or even wider scenarios. Among them, the most noteworthy is the category of smart electric two-wheelers.
The breakthrough occurred in 2019. In the field of smart electric two-wheelers, with the help of the industry opportunity brought by the new national standard for electric vehicles that year, the company’s smart electric two-wheeler products achieved sales of over 100,000 units in the first year of listing. Record. In 2021, the sales volume of the company’s electric two-wheeler products will continue to break through, with the cumulative sales volume for the year exceeding 420,000 units, a year-on-year increase of nearly 300%.
Compared with the traditional electric two-wheeled vehicle brands that have been established for many years, No. 9 Company did not enter the category until the end of 2019, and it can be regarded as a “novice” who has just entered the game. However, being a novice also means that there is no historical baggage and knows how to innovate and make breakthroughs.
The “2022 White Paper on China’s Two-Wheeler Industry” recently released by iResearch shows that No. 9 smart electric two-wheelers have outstanding performance in terms of “high level of intelligence”, “market share of high-end models” and “technological innovation”, and continue to Leading the industry.
Nine Kart Pro
The iResearch report also shows that more than 70% of users of electric two-wheelers are under the age of 35, mainly in first- and second-tier cities and new first-tier cities, and their lifestyles are generally characterized by pursuit of trends, love of technology products, love of exploration and daring Try new things and have a better understanding of pop culture.
Therefore, relying on the keen perception of the needs of young users over the years, in addition to focusing on intelligence, No. 9 has also explored a “cool” route with young people. Frequently co-branded with Li Ning, Line friends, Station B, e-sports teams, etc., and go offline through activities such as General Mobilization on the 9th, to communicate and experience face-to-face with young consumers.
Up to now, the No. 9 smart electric vehicle product line covers new national standard electric bicycles, electric light motorcycles, electric motorcycles, etc. In the past 618, Jiuhao Electric once again dominated the list – its omni-channel sales exceeded 310 million, a year-on-year increase of 278%. At the same time, it occupied the TOP 1 position of electric vehicle transactions on both platforms on JD.com and Tmall, and became the two platforms of more than 4,000 yuan. Top 1 sales brand of high-end electric two-wheelers.
Wang Ye, CEO of No. 9 Company, believes that No. 9’s approach in the short-term transportation field is to use ten times the investment, ten times the energy and ten times the concentration to make a category well, such as electric balance car, scooter, two Wheels are like that. Thanks to the accumulation of technology, supply chain, products, etc., it has been integrated into a complete system, ensuring that No. 9 leads the industry.
This method, which is different from the rapid iteration of traditional digital categories, allows No. 9 to play steadily in the short-term traffic field, and through the horizontal and vertical layout, it continues to make great progress in multiple categories, and has a place in all travel scenarios within 50 kilometers. .
From feature phone to smart phone: intelligent high-dimensional competition
In Wang Ye’s view, as a company with robot genes, Nine has been using robot thinking to do short traffic. With its technical strength and technological vision, it has always gained an advantage in the competition of the same category.
In the current tide of intelligence in the global short-distance transportation field, No. 9 Company has achieved many firsts——
For the first time, an assisted driving system was installed on an electric scooter to improve the operational efficiency of the shared scooter; the GT series of high-profile super scooters with a one-button operation of 70km/h was launched; the first time a high-performance kart kit was loaded on a balance scooter, Create a cool consumer category; for the first time, a “true intelligent system” is installed in an electric two-wheeled vehicle.
At the same time, No. 9 held a high-level product line to keep its products at the high level of the industry, and then the technical premium of the products drove up the overall revenue and net profit continued to rise. At the same time, the perennial technological investment is forming a “ fish pond “ , allowing No. 9’s technical reserve to be equipped with “ new weapons “ , which makes it unfavorable in almost all the market segments it is in.
The financial report of No. 9 Company confirms this.
In 2021, No. 9 Company achieved an operating income of 9.146 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 52.36%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 411 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 458.84%. The main reason for the substantial increase in revenue and net profit is the brand premium and competitive advantage brought by smart electric balance cars, scooters and electric two-wheeled vehicles.
At the same time, according to the financial report data of No. 9 Company over the years, in 2017 and 2021, the company’s R&D investment continued to increase from 91.33 million yuan to 504 million yuan. In 2021, the company has more than 1,300 R&D personnel, accounting for 40% of the company’s total. As of the end of 2021, No. 9 has authorized 1,830 domestic patents, 115 copyrights, 964 trademark rights, and 478 overseas authorized patents.
Segway Pilot
Under this line, No. 9 has made many products that lead the industry.
A verifiable example is the No. 9 smart electric scooter S90L, which was released overseas by No. 9 in May this year. The car is equipped with an inconspicuous small box – Segway Pilot (Segway Intelligent Riding Assistance System). But this “AI small box” has a computer vision recognition system that can only be seen on electric vehicles, which can realize real-time monitoring of roads, pedestrians, parking areas, parking spot detection, driving recorders, etc.
For example, when the No. 9 smart electric scooter S90L runs too fast on the sidewalk, or enters the sidewalk from the bicycle lane, the vehicle will automatically slow down and emit a warning sound to regulate the user’s riding habits. This technology has successfully solved the road regulation and driving safety issues faced in the current shared scooter operation.
In fact, No. 9 Company started to build a technical framework for outdoor autonomous driving in 2019. Through the efforts of a large amount of driving data and algorithm teams for three years, a mature large model has been trained and 3 million kilometers of driving data have been accumulated. Applying this technical architecture to electric scooters can be regarded as a dimensionality reduction application.
The same situation also occurs in electric two-wheeled vehicle products.
“ When we initially discussed entering the Red Sea market of electric two-wheelers, the entire conference room was full of low air pressure, and everyone was hesitant. In the end, the strategy returned to the route suitable for No. 9 – using intelligence to segment and differentiate the market. , to do things that no one has done in this industry. “ Wang Ye, CEO of No. 9 Company , said that after the change of course, the whole team was very excited.
Although the two rounds of products are restricted by the new national standard, there is not much room for innovation. However, No. 9 Company still applied the research and development idea of ”smart machine” to the remanufactured electric two-wheeler. Combined with the interconnection of cloud data and vehicles, we have developed an intelligent system to improve user experience.
On the first electric two-wheeled vehicle product launched at the end of 2019, No. 9 launched its self-developed RideyGo – a stop-and-go system. When the user’s mobile phone approaches the vehicle, the automatic unlocking is completed through Ninebot Airlock, etc. – riding detection – The whole process of automatic car locking.
This function has also led the industry to change. Since then, Mavericks has launched OKGO!, and brands such as Yadi have also launched human-computer interaction systems.
No. 9’s “dimension reduction attack” in electric two-wheeled vehicles is also reflected in the controller system, absorbing the anti-lock braking system of motorcycles and the control system applied in electric vehicles.
“Mole control can make the electric two-wheeler automatically park temporarily on the slope, it can automatically filter the vibration of the slightly bumpy road like driving a car, and automatically optimize the algorithm; the ABS anti-lock braking system can prevent the tire from locking on the side. The TCS traction controller can prevent the tires from idling and side-slip. These are all using technology to upgrade the riding experience and increase safety.” said Zhang Zhenyuan, general manager of No. 9 Electric Two-Wheel Division.
More importantly, in the process of adding the above systems to electric two-wheeled vehicles, No. 9 adopts self-developed methods, so that on the basis of protecting user data, products can be improved with the help of data. In 2021 alone, No. 9 Electric OTA background upgrades will reach 30 times, and the experience will be continuously optimized to form a “true intelligent system”. “The advantages of No. 9 use self-research to ensure the closed loop of commercialization, and form a unique riding experience for No. 9.” Zhang Zhenyuan said.
No. 9 Intelligent Electric Two-Wheeler Mechanic MMAX
With the improvement of the intelligence of the whole industry, No. 9 has also put forward higher requirements for products. In 2022, No. 9 Company will launch the flagship mechanic MMAX series, which is equipped with Mole Control and TCS Traction Controller simultaneously, with a battery life of 95km.
“This is the most current configuration of electric two-wheelers in China, and it is a product that shows off muscles.” Zong Zeyuan, a senior car critic, believes.
Once again, Nine has built a new ceiling in the industry through comprehensive technology leadership.
Under the guidance of technology, No.9’s “flagship” products have brought the industry from “functional phones” to the era of “smart phones”, and also brought commercial value. During June 18 this year, the No. 9 mechanic, MMAX110P, won the top position in the Jingdong electric vehicle trading list within 4 hours before the sale; and the smart electric scooter S90L equipped with the intelligent system Segway Pilot has won many shared scooter operations in Europe and the United States as soon as it was launched. The favor of the merchants has entered mass production.
Industry reshuffle, regulations on the 9th
While leading the industry in both technical and product capabilities, No. 9 has also begun to take on greater industry responsibilities – assisting in drafting industry norms and exploring the way for the entire short-distance transportation industry.
According to GFK data, from January 2019 to February 2020, No. 9’s electric scooter products ranked first in major European countries such as Germany, Italy, Spain and other major European countries, and most shared electric scooter operators also used No. 9 Company as sole or first supplier.
Today, No. 9 Company has become the world’s leading provider of shared micro-mobility solutions, and has conducted in-depth cooperation with companies such as Spin and Voi. However, in the domestic market, due to the lack of national standards for electric balance vehicles and electric scooters, the quality of products sold in the market is uneven, and the industry urgently needs to establish clear and standardized industry standards.
The Internet of Vehicles Data Center of No. 9 Company
As the industry wind vane, No. 9 Company, as the deputy head unit of the drafting group and the first drafting unit, took the lead in formulating the national standards for electric balance vehicles “GB/T34667-2017 General Technical Conditions for Electric Balance Vehicles” and “GB/T34668-2017 Electric Balance Vehicles” Vehicle Safety Requirements and Test Methods”; participated in the drafting of the Chinese industry standard SJ/T11685-2017 “Specifications for Lithium-ion Batteries and Battery Packs for Balanced Vehicles”.
On November 16, 2021, No. 9 Company, as one of the main drafting units, participated in the national standard launch meeting of the “General Technical Specifications for Electric Scooters”. The standard is reported and implemented by SACTC155 (National Bicycle Standardization Technical Committee), and the competent authority is China National Light Industry Federation.
According to a number of industry insiders, according to the new national standards for electric two-wheelers, the category of electric skateboards is likely to become a branch under the category of electric bicycles and a supplementary category of electric bicycles.
This year, No. 9 Company also launched a micro-travel solution service provider dedicated to semi-closed places such as college campuses, scenic spots, and industrial parks – No. 9 Qingqi, which has entered more than 50 campuses and scenic spots including Shougang Park. Through a series of black technologies such as intelligent parking detection system and geo-fencing technology, it can automatically detect whether the parking area meets the specifications to ensure the environment and safety of the park.
In the field of electric two-wheelers, with the mandatory national standard of “Technical Specification for Electric Bicycle Safety” (GB 17761-2018) (referred to as “New National Standard”) in various cities, China, the world’s largest single market segment, There will be a wave of replacement of about 100 million vehicles exceeding the standard. Intelligence and high-end will become the direction of Inspur.
According to iResearch’s expectation, 2022 will be the third year of the implementation of the new national standard policy. The temporary license plates in the transitional period of many cities will expire or will expire soon, and electric two-wheelers will usher in a new round of redemption. After the new national standard, low-end electric two-wheeled vehicle products will be eliminated, and the average unit price of electric two-wheeled vehicle products will increase. It is estimated that the electric two-wheeled vehicle market will reach 144.3 billion yuan in 2022.
At present, in the context of rising global oil prices, E-mobility is an irreversible trend. Just like Tesla has led the trend of the entire electric vehicle industry, No. 9 is also leading the long-stagnant traditional electric two-wheeler industry into the second half through a series of intelligentization and compliance. The travel-based short-distance transportation industry brings new opportunities.
From 0 to 50 kilometers, No. 9 Company has been leading the development of the industry with high technology in the ten years of development. Undoubtedly, in the next decade, No. 9 Company will expand more scenarios and gain more room for growth. (This article was first published on Titanium Media App)
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