Square dancing is not strange for us, because we often see groups of the elderly in daily life, in the park, square, and even anywhere an empty street, with light and rhythmic dance music, and the more gathered in the square, and can entertain the collective dance of the origin of the name become a square dance.
Under the outbreak of silver economy, square dance economy has become a tuyere industry
There are about 440 million people born in the 1960s and 1970s in China, and the proportion of elderly people in China is expected to rise to 24 percent by 2030, according to The State Council. Research institutions forecast that the market benefits brought by middle-aged and elderly groups in the tourism market, catering market and health products market will reach 3.3 trillion yuan in 2020. As the population gets older and heavier, China’s silver economy will also see explosive growth.
With the continuous improvement of the national economic level, the middle-aged and elderly in China have gradually had leisure time to “enjoy their old age”. But for the middle-aged and elderly, not mastering household appliances and smart mobile devices, increasing leisure time only increases the time they spend alone and in an empty nest. In 2005, driven by the wave of national sports, middle-aged and elderly people began to go out of their homes for outdoor sports. In front of a large number of middle-aged and old people with no foundation, square dance, which is simple and easy to learn without professional equipment and venues, and has social and leisure functions, has become their preferred sport. And with the increase in the number of middle-aged and elderly people going out of their homes, square dancing ushered in an explosive growth.
According to The data of Tangdou, there are about 3 million square dancers and 20-30 million serious fans, and the total number of square dancing fans is about 80-100 million. Based on the large middle-aged and elderly population base, the square dance economy formed through hardware, software and related accessories can reach the market scale of 2 billion. Capital also enables the rapid expansion of the square dance entrepreneurial market, and promotes it to gradually become the wind.
According to the statistics of the square dance market, more than 60 square dance apps have been launched since 2015, the first year of the establishment of square dance, and the market is quite lively. For example, 99 Square Dance, Dancing Time and Tangdou Square Dance, which mainly provide online square dance teaching video content; Square dancing bar that can provide square dancing equipment; And ai Square dance, which can provide online activities such as e-commerce and tourism. Square dance entrepreneurs enter the market from different angles and try to open up the market of hundreds of millions through square dance APP.
And for capital, square dancing with huge potential user groups is also a piece of fat meat. In 2015, Tangdou Square Dance announced the completion of round A financing of $5 million, round B financing of $15 million in September 2016, and additional round B financing of $5 million in November. 99 Square Dance also announced the completion of A round of $5 million funding in July 2016…
The first death, square dance economy burst
However, the investment of many capital did not make the entrepreneur’s dream of commercialization of square dance come true. In just two years, there are few square dancing apps left. Companies that used to operate in various vertical areas of square dancing are now announcing large-scale transformations or shutting down due to lack of financing.
For one thing, middle-aged and elderly people find it difficult to adapt to square dancing apps with complex functions. According to the STATISTICS report of CNNIC, there are about 36 million Netizens over the age of 60 in China, accounting for 4.8% of the 751 million Internet users. These middle-aged and elderly netizens can skillfully use wechat, but they are a little weak in using complex software such as live broadcast and video, so they cannot obtain online square dancing videos and other product resources through APP. Some manufacturers of tablet computers and other hardware devices that serve square dancers have shifted to other fields to do electronic hardware research and development; Apps such as 99 Square dance Live streaming have been transformed into pan-entertainment live streaming in the depressed market of square dance live streaming…
Second, the elderly on the trust of the online mall is low. Square dancing live and video APP has certain to fit the difficulty in operation, elderly users not familiar with online operation process, the lower level of trust in online mall prefer to order offline store, or let their children in a more convenient platform for buying such as taobao, unprofitable platform can only helplessly at the mall exit square dance dealer market. Attempts through to square dance video of electricity of jelly beans APP development community, found that the square dance users to watch video, little consumption in the coverage reached tens of millions of jelly beans in the mall, in the first half of this year to buy mall service product users only 300 people, the conversion rate of less than one over ten thousand jelly beans square dance has also changed its name to jelly beans, remove the square dance properties, And changed the main layout content from square dance teaching video to UGC short videos of middle-aged and old people…
The middle and old age groups are difficult to adapt to the Internet and have low trust, which leads to the difficulty of making profits for square dancing APP and the low conversion rate of e-commerce. Entrepreneurs and capital have left and abandoned this hard bone to gnathe. Perhaps, the square dance economy is not the sunrise industry of business mouth.
After 90 leading economic birth, young or can become a life-saving straw
In the process of in-depth cultivation of the square dance market, many entrepreneurs found that every square dance group would start in small groups at the beginning, and expand with the increasing number of people, including a leader dancer. From the unorganized and spontaneous gathering, to the gradually organized group with a certain discipline and mainly informed by the leader, the core value of the leader of square dance is gradually expanding.
Therefore, the square dance enterprises that still exist after the great waves have made corresponding adjustments to this phenomenon, forming the square dance leader economy with the leader as the core. Platforms such as “Dancing Time” and “99 Square Dance” open the consumer market of square dance products through offline mode by setting up sites in various cities, signing contracts and packaging leaders who are familiar with Internet knowledge and operation of square dance online mall.
Moreover, in the training of middle-aged and old leaders in square dancing, the learning ability of the middle-aged and old becomes worse with the growth of age, which further stimulates the emergence and development of the economy of young leaders. In the market, the demand of square dancers for dance types changes with the trend, and the demand for square dance that ballet, hip-hop, cheongsam, body display and other elements can be integrated into music and dance has become an opportunity for young square dance. Many “post-1995” dance graduates choose to engage in the teaching of square dance, and the mix and match combination with “post-1960s” students has injected innovative thinking into square dance.
After injecting new vitality, square dancing is no longer the privilege of the middle-aged and the elderly. The crowd of square dancers in the streets is no longer just monotonous middle-aged and old people, but also white-collar workers and other “empty-nest youth” who just passed by after work. According to the white Paper on Chinese Square Dancing in 2017, the post-65s to the post-90s are the main force of square dancing, accounting for 71 percent of the total. “Pre-65” only accounted for 27 percent, among which east China has the highest number of post-80s and post-90s dancers, accounting for more than 43 percent. Square dance tends to be younger also let entrepreneurs and capital see hope again.
Long road, square dance young road and long
With the increasing number of young dancers in the square dance community, the vitality of square dance is becoming more and more obvious. The participation of young people also solves the problem of low market conversion rate in square dancing economy, and meets the needs of young users for low-cost social interaction and fitness.
It can be seen that the urbanization of empty-nest youth accelerated the formation of square dance leader economy. The group of “empty-nest youth” gradually formed by urban development is expanding. According to the data of Alibaba in the first half of 2017, the population base of “empty-nest youth” has reached 50 million, and its potential market is no less than the silver hair market dominated by middle-aged and elderly people. According to the “Chinese Empty-nest Youth Guide” released by Taobao, most empty-nest young people are distributed in first-tier cities, with Shenzhen topping the list with 3.07 million, followed by Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The characteristics of this group, such as the high proportion of Internet, strong learning ability and easy management, can greatly shorten the training time and realize the leader economy more quickly.
On the other hand, square dancing can help empty nest youth get out of their “empty nest”. For empty-nest youth, the high pressure of the city makes them only stay at home after work, watching TV series, playing with mobile phones and sleeping, leading a “decadent” life without leaving home, and even affecting their physical and mental health. Moreover, the social mode limited to the Internet is also the main reason for empty-nest youth. For empty-nest youth, the simple rhythm of square dancing can help them integrate into the group faster and even become the leader, so that they can obtain certain income in the leader economy to relieve the pressure of life. It can also release the pressure of urban empty-nesters through exercise, and form social square dancing to reduce loneliness.
However, in order to combine the traditional concept of square dance with empty-nest youth, make the square dance economy more dynamic and further dig into the square dance market, there are still two problems.
Problem one, peripheral services can not meet the consumption needs of young people. At present, the site selection of square dancing mainly considers the problem of crowd capacity, and the middle-aged and elderly do not have too many requirements for peripheral services. For young people, even though square dancing is a social interaction with no threshold and zero consumption, it is easier for them to meet their social and entertainment needs with convenient transportation and diversified peripheral services after collective social interaction is transformed into private social interaction.
The second problem is that young people are unable to “lose face”, which is the main obstacle to the rejuvenation of square dancing. In the traditional concept, square dancing is a collective activity for middle-aged and elderly people to participate in, while the thinking of young people is that square dancing will herald the entering of middle age, and square dancing culture is also known as the culture of middle-aged and elderly people. Therefore, in order to make square dancing younger and inject new young blood, it needs the guidance of enterprises and the market to launch novel but understandable dances to attract empty-nest youth groups.
In a word, from the point of view of the national movement, the birth of square dance not only serves the middle-aged and elderly groups. At present, entrepreneurs in the market regard square dance economy as a part of the silver economy, and the low recognition of the middle-aged and elderly on the Internet leads to the development of square dance economy. Therefore, it is not only a second rebirth of the square dance economy, but also a way for the new youth to shape a healthy lifestyle.
Liu Kuang, meditation on the Internet, wechat official account: Liukuang110