Please come to Shanghai and take the subway: product analysis of Metro Metropolis
Shanghai Metro has been able to use the APP directly without a bus card. What’s so special about this APP?
Since January 20, 2018, the whole network of Shanghai Metro has tried to scan the code and pass the gate. It is no longer afraid to take the subway without change and forget to bring the bus card. The scanned QR code is neither Alipay nor WeChat, but an APP called Metro Metropolis.
During the week of operation, people wearing red vests and Yi Labao can already be seen in subway stations, and more and more passengers are using them. For this change that is closely related to travel, curious babies naturally want to know more about it.
Let’s talk about the pioneer of "off-card" pit stop: NFC.
Before Metro was launched, Shanghai Metro was not the only way to get in and out of the station. In addition to bus cards, we can also see many passengers smartly taking out their mobile phones, smart watches and other equipment to enter the station.
I have to mention NFC here. Mobile phones and smart watches that can be swiped into the station are all card simulation modes using NFC technology. The simple understanding is that the device will record the magnetic core information of the bus card when it is tied, and the device is an analog card when it is used.
The efficiency of entering the station is comparable to that of a real bus card, but its limitations are also fatal-only some Android phones are supported. Apple’s mobile phone has actually had NFC function since the iPhone6, but Apple only opened this function for its own Apple Pay, but it also continued its style; Therefore, NFC has lost half of its territory congenitally, and naturally it has been tepid.
"Scan code" is the magic weapon to be compatible with mobile phone operating system.
With the promotion of scanning code payment by Alipay and WeChat, users have become accustomed to scanning code, and the mass base is quite strong. Indeed, the development of mobile payment in China is no worse than anywhere else in the world. The most important thing is that the hardware limitation of code scanning is not as high as NFC, which can basically cover all subway passengers.
Accurate passenger travel data
Scanning the code into the station is undoubtedly a good thing for passengers, and there is another choice, especially for passengers who easily forget their cards and often lose them. However, it seems unreasonable for Shanghai Metro officials to make great efforts to upgrade the gates and bear the extra operation and maintenance costs only from the convenience of passengers-or because Hangzhou next door supports scanning code to buy tickets and scan code to enter the station, and Shanghai, as a first-tier city, has been left behind too much, and it is hard to face.
Of course, there is no way to guess the specific reasons, but accurate passenger travel data is a scarce wealth.
When using the bus card, the subway company also holds the travel data, but all available data are partial, such as which platform has a large passenger flow and which route has a large passenger flow. According to the personal data of passengers, there are actually related records, such as the frequency of this user taking the subway, the route he often takes, and the time of commuting. However, because the bus card is anonymous, it is impossible to attribute these data to a certain user, let alone the user who triggered this part.
When users start to scan the code and enter the station, all this changes, and the data can be accurately corresponding to a passenger; Perhaps this part of the data can’t be used for the time being, but it is a scarce wealth for smart travel and smart city construction in the future.
Scanning code is a good thing, but why should there be a "Metro Metropolis"? Why not use Alipay or WeChat directly? This is also a question of many people. Obviously, using Alipay has a better experience for passengers. In view of the installed capacity of Alipay, there is no need to worry that users need to download an APP again when using it.
Besides Alipay, there are WeChat and UnionPay.
When Shanghai promoted the matter of scanning code and taking the subway, it was impossible not to consider Alipay at all, but if you think about it carefully, there are WeChat and UnionPay. Do you need compatibility? After all, Shanghai is not Hangzhou, so it is impossible to bet on the Alipay family. If you scan the code and take the subway in Alipay now, the current ticketing system and gate equipment are bound to be reformed. When you access WeChat or UnionPay in the future, you will face the possibility of repeated reforms. Why don’t official website Metro make its own Metro Metropolis APP, establish its own platform, and unify the specifications, so that no matter whether it is connected by WeChat or other manufacturers in the future, there is no need to make additional transformation. This is actually a long-term plan.
Who is the subject and who is the entrance of traffic?
Who is the subject. If Shanghai Metro opens the boarding code function on Alipay APP, the answer to this question will be vague, and scanning the code to ride will become a function of Alipay, which will contribute to Alipay’s market share and stability in Shanghai, and the entrance of user traffic will also be concentrated on Alipay APP. Shanghai Metro won’t do this, thus losing its initiative and future bargaining power.
Moreover, the installed capacity of Shanghai Metro’s own official APP has been very small, and it is not suitable for commercial advertisements. You can just take a ride to promote the function of scanning code and increase the download volume of "Metro Metropolis". After traffic, putting some advertisements can also be regarded as a means of profit.
Travel data
If the user completes the whole process of scanning the code on Alipay APP, all the user data will remain in Alipay. The accurate user travel data that the subway official has always wanted, as well as the reach of users in the future, is a fantasy.
Indeed, we found that the scope of cooperation between Metro Metropolis and Alipay and UnionPay is limited to providing users with real-name authentication capabilities and payment capabilities.
For various reasons, Shanghai Metro chose to build its own APP, but their experience and technical strength are far less than those of professional Internet companies in making applications.
Here are a few cases:
"Oh, my God, why do you have to turn on Bluetooth?"
Among them, the most talked about is to turn on Bluetooth. Indeed, when our "Metro Metropolis" APP scans the code, it must turn on Bluetooth. Why? The direct reason is that official website chose the self-built APP, and the fundamental reason is that the QR code can only interact in one direction, and the APP can’t get any information through the QR code. The passenger’s fare calculation is done independently by APP. If APP can’t get the location of the station, it can’t calculate the fare at all.
In order to solve this problem, Shanghai Metro has also spent a lot of effort. Through a series of problems with companies, it has launched the technology of "Double Offline BLE Bluetooth Write-back of QR code", and the story of "Double Offline" is left to the next node, saying that "Bluetooth Write-back" is actually a means for subway gates to inform APP passengers of the information of getting in and out of the station. The general process is as follows:
- The mobile phone generates a two-dimensional code (including the user’s id, mobile phone Bluetooth address and other related information).
- The gate reads the QR code information and sends it to the controller.
- The controller on the gate calls the Bluetooth module of the mobile phone.
- The mobile phone Bluetooth establishes communication with the gate controller, and writes back relevant information (information of the subway station, arrival time, etc.).
- The gate is released.
Under normal circumstances, the above interaction process needs to be completed within half a second.
So, you must turn on Bluetooth. Why don’t you turn on Bluetooth when Alipay shows the QR code for payment, because nothing will be written back at all during the payment process. After the merchant scans the code, it has nothing to do with the QR code, and the user Alipay only receives the follow-up notice.
The impact of this technology:
- The existence of Bluetooth write-back technology also prevents criminals from taking my QR code screenshot to ride.
- Due to the problem of Bluetooth adaptation, subway officials have listed a list of unsupported mobile phone models. Many mobile phone manufacturers have castrated the Bluetooth function, so this kind of mobile phone is not in the support list.
"We are really thinking about passengers. If you don’t believe me, look at our dual offline technology."
In the real use process, some users will still stand in front of the gate and connect to the internet, then open the APP and bring up the QR code page. In fact, as long as the QR code is loaded, there is no need to connect to the internet for future refreshing. This point also fully considers the user’s usage scenarios. The signal in the subway is always unstable. If users are required to connect to the Internet during the process of opening or refreshing the QR code, it will greatly affect the user experience.
Conflict with NFC
Because the newly modified gate supports bus cards, NFC devices and code scanning devices at the same time, if a smart phone has NFC turned on and Metro Metropolis installed at the same time, it will be difficult to identify the gate, and it is obvious that passengers want to use Metro Metropolis. As a result, NFC may work because of the wrong approach posture, leading to the success of swiping the card. Because of this, the Android version of Metro Metropolis requires passengers to turn off the NFC function during the activation process. But in the long run, when the subsidy for "Metro Metropolis" ends, I think passengers may close the "Metro Metropolis". After all, NFC swipes cards faster and can take public transportation.
"Where did you put our bus passengers?"
From the above introduction, we can feel that Shanghai Metro has completely abandoned the bus card in this mode. There is no need to use the bus card in the whole process, but the good thing is half done. When passengers take the bus, they can’t use the "Metro Metropolis". At this time, they can only take out the bus card honestly, and after swiping the card, they find that the concessions for subway bus transfer are gone. Passengers are definitely unhappy. After all, there are not a few passengers who transfer between subway and bus during commuting. These users are destined not to become deep users of "Metro Metropolis".
I have also experienced the "metro Metropolis" many times recently, but I have never chosen to use it during the morning rush hour, or I quietly turned out my bus card and quickly passed the gate.
Product experience:
- The stability of the APP: Many people have reported that after the code scanning is successful, the gate will not be released at all.
- Number of gates: Now it seems that there are two gates at the entrance and exit of each platform to support code scanning. The number is still small. During the peak period, there was a queue in front of the code scanning gate, but the ordinary gate was unimpeded.
- There is a single type of gate: in addition to ordinary gates, there is also a large baggage gate, and there is no large baggage gate that supports code scanning at present.
- Efficiency of passing the gate: scanning code is faster than NFC, and faster than swiping the card. If someone opens the APP in front of you in the morning rush hour, it’s not enough to brush it a few times. You must want to kick him to death in your heart, but he is also in a hurry.
Brief analysis of product positioning;
The people who take the subway are roughly divided into permanent residents and tourists.
If permanent residents often take the subway, they will definitely get a bus card, which is faster than you. If the monthly consumption quota reaches a certain limit, there will be a discount, and there will be a discount for transferring to the bus.
Tourists certainly don’t understand and don’t want to understand "metro Metropolis". It seems that a one-day subway ticket is more suitable for them.
At least for now, regardless of existing subsidies. I think the bus card is better than "metro Metropolis", both in terms of convenience and economy.
This analysis has not yet involved the design of other product functions and the interaction with related pages. Wait until the user is stable, and after several iterations, do another analysis.
This article was originally published by @ Original Dream. Everyone is a product manager. Reprinting is prohibited without permission.
The title map comes from Unsplash and is based on CC0 protocol.