Speaking of square dancing, I believe you are familiar with it. Every evening at the end of work time, the well-known songs such as “The Most Dazzling National Wind” and “Little Apple” will be heard in each square. As beautiful as the songs are the flexible and jumping posture of the old women, who exude the vitality of youth and dance in the wind, living an enviable old age life.
Such a scene in our eyes, but in the eyes of entrepreneurs is a rare gold mine. The number of people born in the 1960s and 1970s in China is about 440 million, and the proportion of the elderly is expected to rise to 24 percent by 2030, according to data. According to relevant data, there are nearly 80 million to 100 million square dancers in China. With the increase of middle-aged and elderly population, the number of square dancers will continue to grow. “Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes.” Facing such huge business opportunities, a large number of entrepreneurs have flooded into the square dance industry, tangdou is one of them.
Tangdou Square Dance: “Douyin” of middle-aged and old People
Tangdou is China’s first square dance video teaching platform, providing more than 2 million videos to 100 million dance lovers across the country. According to Analysys, Tangdou square Dance had 7.2009 million monthly active users in June 2017, ranking fifth in the first-level health sector and fourth in the second-level sports health sector, making it the only square dance APP on the list. According to the preference index of Aurora big data, the most popular fitness app in the market at present is Keep and Yue Circle. Tangdou square Dance, which focuses on the field of square dancing, ranked third.
From this point of view, Tangdou has achieved good results in terms of monthly active users and popularity. Moreover, In the square dance industry, Tangdou is far ahead of other square dance platforms in terms of user scale and market share, and seems to hold the throne of “The first brother” of square dance. But success is not accidental. There are three main reasons why Tangdou stands out among many square dancing platforms.
First, it attracts many users through “community + sharing”. Like many square dancing platforms, Tangdou provides square dancing videos, square dancing music and dance teaching for middle-aged and elderly users, which solves the problem of finding square dancing videos and learning square dancing.
In addition, Tangdou takes “community + sharing” as its core competitiveness, providing a discussion and communication window for the majority of middle-aged and elderly users. Users can publish their own dance videos and participate in speeches on related topics on Tangdou, and make like-minded friends through exchanges and interactions on the platform, so that users have a sense of belonging. At the same time, users can also share their favorite videos and topics with their wechat friends and moments, thus attracting more users for Tangdou.
Second, we should grasp the resources of square dancing teachers to guarantee the quality of the platform content. Tangdou, as a square dance teaching video platform, its teaching content is undoubtedly the key to attract middle-aged and elderly users. Professional teaching content cannot be separated from the help of square dance teachers and dance masters. Only by getting high-quality square dance teacher resources can square dance platforms occupy a high position in the square dance market, and Tangdou has long noticed this point.
In order to attract teaching talents in square dancing and other dance categories, Tangdou rewards excellent videos on the platform, encourages original authors, and coexists with some professional institutions and teachers, so as to continuously increase the talent pool on the platform and greatly improve the quality of content on the platform.
It is reported that more than 90% of the country’s famous square dancers and their works come from Tangdou Square Dance, and the number of videos on its platform has exceeded 2 million. Therefore, Both in terms of the quantity and quality of videos, Tangdou is far ahead of other similar platforms, providing favorable support for its success in the square dance market.
The third reason is to enter the short video field and become the “Douyin” of middle-aged and old people. In recent years, with fast worker, trill short video platform, makes people found a new way of entertainment, a short video content has become an important weapon to attract traffic, numerous platforms have “follow suit”, started to short video business, but the short video on the market platform for young people, mostly ignored the market of the elderly.
According to QuestMobile, the average person in the silver age group — those aged over 50 — used the mobile Internet for about 109 hours a month in June, up 28.5 per cent year on year. In key industries, instant messaging, news and short videos ranked the top three, with about 31 hours, 28 hours and 25 hours respectively. Among them, short videos recorded the biggest year-on-year growth among all industries.
It can be seen that short video content is also the favorite of middle-aged and old people. In this regard, Tangdou specially provides short video content of life, funny and dance for middle-aged and old people. Users can also post their own short videos on Tangdou to share their funny life and dancing videos, which not only provides fun for users but also increases user engagement. It can be said that it kills two birds with one stone.
It is because of the above three reasons that Tangdou has become a leader in the square dance market and attracted the attention of the industry. At the same time, Tangdou has obtained the support of capital. In 2015, Tangdou announced the completion of A $5 million Series A financing, A $15 million Series B financing in September 2016, and A $5 million Series B additional financing in November of the same year.
With the capital, The development of Tangdou is more smooth, and its dynasty of square dancing is also growing. However, “it is easy to beat the enemy, but it is difficult to defend the enemy”. Although Tangdou has made a big lead in the field of square dance, it is still unknown whether it can be the last laugh in the cruel square dance market, in the face of masters ambushed all around and their own potential dangers.
Square river’s lake still wind and rain, “sugar beans” this road is difficult
Square dance market statistics, since 2015 square dance of the first year of business, a total of 60 kinds of square dance App online, including 99 square dance, dance and jump square dance such as relatively good platform for the square dance, and under the market demand, more and more players in the field of the incoming, square dance has become increasingly crowded market. In the face of so many martial arts masters, even if Tangdou martial arts superior, but also facing no small competitive pressure, coupled with the current problems of Tangdou, more make its situation becomes unfavorable.
First, although the function of tangdou is rich, but it is difficult for the elderly to adapt. As we all know, most old people have traditional ideas and cannot accept new things as easily as young people, so they are not skilled enough in the operation of smart phones and can only use wechat voice chat, web news and other simple functions. Software with more functions like Tangdou undoubtedly creates no small “trouble” for middle-aged and elderly people. Moreover, with the upgrade and revision of Tangdou, its operation will become more “complex”, which makes it difficult for many middle-aged and elderly people to adapt and reduces the user experience value.
Second, the square dance platform is deeply rooted in people’s hearts, and Tangdou is difficult to develop into other fields. Although Tangdou has achieved good results in the field of square dancing, it is not difficult to see that the ambition of Tangdou is not limited to this since it changed its name from “Tangdou Square Dancing” to the current “Tangdou”. It removed the word “square dance”, weakened the property of square dance, meaning to explore a larger middle-aged and elderly market.
However, at present, The transformation of Tangdou is not successful. Its content and modules are mainly related to square dance, and no new content has been developed. Although Tangdou has changed its name, most middle-aged and elderly users still regard tangdou as a square dancing platform in terms of user concept. It is undoubtedly difficult for Tangdou to develop other businesses on this basis.
Third, profitability is worrying. Although Tangdou has grown into a large platform with 7 million monthly live users, it has a huge traffic advantage, but it faces great obstacles in making profits. It is understood that The sugar bean is currently mainly rely on advertising profit, has not found a stable way of profit.
In 2017, Tangdou added an e-commerce entrance to the app, but was removed due to low conversion rate. There are two reasons for the failure of Tangdou’s e-commerce business. On the one hand, the main goods of square dancing e-commerce are nothing more than clothing, audio and other goods, which are of single type and low frequency of purchase by users, making it difficult to form long-term purchase. On the other hand, middle-aged and elderly users lack trust in online shopping and are more accustomed to offline consumption than online. Therefore, it is difficult to make breakthroughs in Tangdou’s e-commerce business.
In this way, both the pressure of industry competition and the problems encountered by the platform are hindering the development of Tangdou in the future. It may not be easy for Tangdou to secure its foothold in the square dance market.
Jelly beans how to crack the future problem: not afraid of strong enemy jagged cliff risk, chivalry horizontal knife to see the moon
Horace, the Ancient Roman poet, once said, “Difficulties overcome are opportunities for victory.” Although Tangdou has encountered no small difficulties, it has huge advantages in the number of users and teacher resources. As long as Tangdou can make reasonable use of its own advantages, brave dangers and dare to innovate, it may solve many problems it has encountered.
First, set up square dancing service stations, “occupy” the offline square. Unlike young people who like online shopping, middle-aged and elderly people prefer offline experience and consumption, which is the main reason why Tangdou’s e-commerce business is difficult to make a breakthrough. Therefore, in view of the living habits of middle-aged and elderly people, Tangdou should change its strategy and enter the offline market. By setting up a small square dancing service station in the square, it may make a breakthrough.
First, through the square dancing service station, Tangdou can provide relevant square dancing props or health measurement services for middle-aged and elderly users, which can not only provide more intimate services for middle-aged and elderly users, but also increase its own profit sources. Secondly, Tangdou can also promote its own Tangdou platform through the service station, to the online drainage, and offline service personnel can also teach users specific software operation, to solve the “difficult operation” problem of middle-aged and elderly users.
Secondly, Tangdou can gradually provide more comprehensive and high-quality services around the middle-aged and elderly, so as to build its own ecological chain of the elderly and increase its competitiveness in the industry. On the one hand, Tangdou needs to gradually cultivate users’ concept of the platform through long-term refined operation, and let more people know that Tangdou is not just a square dancing platform.
On the other hand, the middle-aged and elderly market has a very good prospect in tourism, health and other fields, and Tangdou can choose these fields as the starting point of breakthrough in the middle-aged and elderly market. Research institutions forecast that the market benefits brought by middle-aged and elderly groups in the tourism market, catering market and health products market is expected to reach 3.3 trillion yuan in 2020. As the population gets older and heavier, China’s silver economy will also see explosive growth. As long as we seize these opportunities, Tangdou’s future development will be more diversified and its profits will become more stable.
Finally, through holding square dance competitions, promote square dance culture and further build platform popularity. Nowadays, square dancing has become one of the most popular fitness sports among middle-aged and elderly people and has accumulated many fans all over the country. Tangdou can hold square dancing competitions to gather these crowds and provide an ideal stage for the vast number of square dancing enthusiasts to show themselves and fly. In addition, holding square dancing events can also expand the influence of Tangdou and contribute to the better development of the platform in the future.
In general, although Tangdou has established a considerable advantage in the square dance market, its development has been hindered by problems such as user concept and difficulty in making profits. But the middle-aged market behind square dancing is a treasure trove that entrepreneurs have yet to unearth. As long as Tangdou can break through these shackles and provide better services for the middle-aged and elderly, its future development will be broader.
Article/Liu Kuang public number, ID: Liukuang110, this article first kuang Venture capital network