Driving away "seated people", pinching customers, causing profit decline, and sharing massage chairs plagued by problems

Recently, the topic of "shared massage chair" has become a hot topic because it has occupied the waiting room and other public spaces, pushing the topic of "shared massage chair" to the forefront again.

A Ground of Chicken Feather under the Concept of Shared Massage Chair Air Outlet

In 2016, the concept of "sharing economy" was hot, with bicycles, cars, umbrellas, power banks, massage chairs... As long as the word "sharing" was added in front of these traditional industries, it seemed as if "extraordinary wealth" had arrived before us. But in just a few short years, the wind has receded and everything has gone down the road. Except for shared bicycles and tailwinds, the "sharing" effect of other industries is not ideal. In 2016, massage equipment company "Rongtai Health" landed on the A-share market, and it was also seen by some shareholders as a "sharing economy stock" at that time.

In 2015, Rongtai Health launched the concept of "shared massage chairs" and established Shanghai Xiaoxi Network Technology Co., Ltd. for related business operations. In 2016, the company launched the shared massage chair brand "Momoda" and actively expanded the laying of public places. At a time when the sharing economy was at its peak, some securities firms highly praised this model, believing that the layout of shared commercial massage chairs would significantly increase brand awareness. As long as a shared massage chair can be used twice a day, the company can achieve a breakeven in this project. The securities firms also predicted that by 2019, Rongtai's revenue from sharing services is expected to reach 1 billion yuan. Like "Momoda", in just a few years, many shared massage chair brands such as Shuangke and Le Moba have rushed to the market. According to incomplete media statistics, in 2017-2018 alone, related enterprises launched about 1 million shared massage chairs in the market, occupying a large number of crowded public places such as high-speed rail stations, shopping malls, cinemas, and airports.

The large-scale installation of shared massage chairs did not bring expected profits to merchants, and by 2018, the crisis of surplus shared massage chairs began to emerge. Taking Rongtai as an example, as of 2019, its disclosed annual report showed that the company's revenue from experiential massage services and other platform services was only around 279 million yuan. However, in 2021, in order to reduce the operational burden of the enterprise, Rongtai divested and sold the equity of Shanghai Yixin Technology, mainly its shared business, which was priced at only 100000 yuan at that time; Rongtai Company has retained the brand ownership of "Momoda" as one of its sub brands in expanding e-commerce channels.

According to Rongtai, during peak hours, the average number of people experiencing shared massage chairs in the company can reach around 6 per day. However, as consumer curiosity dissipates, the shared massage chairs are becoming less sought after. The outbreak of the epidemic and public concerns about the hygiene status of shared massage chairs have increased people's resistance to this model. According to industry insiders, the service life of household massage chairs is generally 5-20 years, but commercial massage chairs are commonly used in public places and have a relatively high frequency of use, with a conservative service life of about 5 years.

If a product is subject to wear and depreciation, maintenance is necessary. However, in public places, we rarely see maintenance of shared massage chairs. According to relevant manufacturers, when designing shared massage chairs, companies consider monitoring the condition of each product in the background. However, there is no clear explanation for whether the monitoring is the use and charging of the product, or the quality or hardware failure of the product itself, At least in the news reported by the media that the shared massage chair pinched customers, we did not see the presence of the manufacturer's maintenance personnel.

The 'seated person' who has been 'driven out'

The reason why "shared massage chairs occupy public space" has attracted widespread discussion is not unrelated to its "ugly appearance". At stations or shopping malls, tired passengers or customers who want to rest on shared massage chairs will be constantly reminded by machines to "please get up and let me serve others." Some massage chairs may even flip over automatically, causing the seated person to "bounce" away. Especially the recent news of 558 ordinary seats and 930 paid massage chairs at Tai'an Station, where passengers have nowhere to sit, has resonated with society. Behind the "buying seats with money" to seize public space resources, the conflicts of interests behind shared massage chairs are worth pondering. Currently, shared massage chairs are mainly settled in public spaces by paying venue rent or cooperating with relevant parties. As rent is a contractual agreement, it is relatively rigid, Therefore, companies operating shared massage chairs will now try more to persuade local governments to convert fixed rent into a sharing model, which is not difficult to understand why local governments are replacing ordinary seats with massage chairs in large quantities.

In addition to seizing the public space, the quality problem of shared massage has also been exposed in recent years. Some consumers told China Home Appliance Network that when she was waiting at Mount Wuyi Airport, she had experienced a shared massage chair. When pressing her legs, the airbag squeezed too tightly, causing serious discomfort. She tried to earn nothing from her legs until the airbag released its force, This poor experience raised doubts about the physical quality of the shared massage chair. China Home Appliance Network inquired with experts in the field of standards and received the answer that currently, massage chairs mainly have standards for household and similar products. In theory, similar uses include shared scenarios, but they also noticed that shared massage chairs have news of pinching customers' hair or causing other physical injuries, just because the overall size of shared products is small, The industry has not specifically studied the relevant safety standards or usage specifications for massage chair products in public places.

According to massage chair manufacturing companies, there are still some differences in product structure between shared massage chairs and household massage chairs. For example, we have removed functions such as arms and soles that are not suitable for public places and mainly added scanning and payment functions. The product will undergo a 1500 hour service life test, and the depreciation period calculated by general enterprises is 3 years

Do you make money by sharing massage chairs? Manufacturers and franchisees have vastly different views on this matter. The manufacturer claims that the shared massage chair is a "lying win" business, with a shared massage chair that can be used for 6 to 30 minutes at a time and a single payment of around 6 to 20 yuan. As long as the chair is properly arranged, there are not too many maintenance costs, and the operator can earn money while sleeping. A salesperson from a massage chair brand calculated that "the cost of a device is 4000 yuan. If the daily average income is 30 yuan, the cost can be recovered in over a year." However, franchisees with experience in sharing massage chair agents do not see it this way, When the shared massage chair was first launched on the market, the business was indeed good. Many consumers would experience it out of curiosity, but as the freshness decreased, there were fewer people willing to spend money. In addition to product costs, we also had to pay for venue rent, logistics and transportation fees, and so on. With the increase of competitors, the rent of good locations increased, and there were not many who could recover the cost

Under the multitude of problems, the shared massage chair market should indeed face its own problems.