Text | Kuaidaocaijing (ID: kuaidaocaijing), author | Zhu Mo
When the times abandon you, it is not even too late to say goodbye, and it has become the yellow flower of yesterday.
After the ice rink, Internet café, and cinema, the once hot KTV has also gone to the end of the road. According to the information of Aiqicha, as of December 2021, only nearly 60,000 enterprises have been opened in the state of searching for enterprise names/registration numbers and business scopes including "KTV", and more than 40,000 enterprises have been revoked or cancelled.
▲Picture/Aiqicha
What is fatal is that the main consumer force of KTV is also gradually drifting away. CCTV Financial Reports, affected by the epidemic, the overall passenger flow of the KTV entertainment industry this year has declined seriously, and the middle-aged and elderly have replaced them as a new customer group of KTV daytime venues, and almost no consumption in the store.
From peak to decline, KTV's ebb and flow is more like a kind of epitome. No industry can "respond to changes with no change", singing may be an inseparable way of entertainment, but KTV is no longer an inevitable choice.
Time passes easily, things are not people, how to sigh.
01 The Golden Age of KTV
In the summer of 1988, Beijing, China, welcomed the first karaoke cabaret, the "You Sing Karaoke Hall".
This new way of entertainment quickly ignited people's passion. The nightlife has changed, and people who used to go to bed early are no longer willing to be bland. Forced by the high demand of the masses, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture originally stipulated that the business hours of the song hall should not exceed 0 o'clock, but later gradually relaxed to two o'clock in the morning, and even opened until three o'clock in the morning after special approval.
According to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture, as of September 1993, there were 282 registered song halls in Beijing. At that time, karaoke was so popular that there were restaurants, restaurants and hotels; there were on the street and in the hutongs; and in some places, even grain stores and vegetable stations were converted into karaoke song halls.
I have to say that the prevalence of karaoke occupies "time, place, people". After the reform and opening up, hong Kong and Taiwan pop music spread throughout the north and south of the great river, and singers such as the four heavenly kings, the little tiger team, zuo lin and right li were frequently released, and the golden songs continued. In the increasingly rich entertainment life, people are eager to show their singing voices and express their personality.
With the gradual improvement of the equipment and services of the karaoke hall, the situation has changed in a subtle way. The early hall-style karaoke was replaced by a variety of luxurious private rooms, equipped with air conditioning and television, as well as a variety of drinks and snacks.
This kind of private room usually has a minimum consumption standard, spending hundreds or thousands of dollars a night is the norm, and the original grounded karaoke hall has become a high-consumption place that only belongs to the rich.
According to a 1995 report, a Mr. Zhang sang karaoke at a nightclub on Dongsi South Avenue in Beijing, and spent a total of 1314 yuan at checkout — 76 yuan for 2 coca-Cola, 28 yuan for a bottle of mineral water, 45 yuan for a beer, 78 yuan for a pot of black tea, 198 yuan for a fruit plate, plus 15% of the service fee and private room fee.
You know, at that time, the average monthly wage of Beijing workers was only about 679 yuan, and karaoke who took the high-end route inevitably began to decline. In April 1995, the attendance rate of the beijing luxury dance hall was less than 40%.
At this delicate juncture, Taiwan's mass-selling karaoke brand "Cash Cabinet" landed in Shanghai. The so-called "mass sales" refers to transparent, self-help and flat-price consumption methods, emphasizing small profits and high sales.
In the cash cabinet, not only is there no tipping, the price is clearly marked, but there is also a more complete library, better service, more fashionable and private venues. In addition, the cash cabinet also provides supermarket self-service shopping, and even equipped with a buffet, which not only meets the entertainment needs, but also takes care of the face, compared with the karaoke hall, it can be called a dimensionality reduction blow.
Since then, the money cabinet has been invincible. Under the fame, the money cabinet earns more than 10 million a month, and the booking phone is always full, even on weekday evenings. Later, as long as it is the place where the cash cabinet is opened, it must be one of the most prosperous areas in the city.
The king of K songs who are also "out of the circle" includes many stars such as Eason Chan among the shareholders. On the day of the opening of the Shanghai store, Chen Guanxi personally came to the scene and publicly sent blessings to Hua Qiang and his wife, Chen Xiaochun, etc.
According to statistics, from 2008 to 2011, the average annual growth rate of the number of KTV companies in China was more than 10%, and by 2013, the number of KTV-type KTV in the country had reached 9920. The total market size of alcohol, snacks, consumables, audio equipment and so on is 400 billion yuan, which is an extremely staggering figure.
In the youth of the 80s and 90s, almost all of them have good memories of "KTV". The front desk discussed what private room to book, how long to book, and then everyone made money together to pay, everything was full of ceremony.
And this side of the box, also carries too many "sentient beings". Some people are here to toast; some people are crying and roaring without hesitation; and others are harvesting unexpected love here.
No one ever expected that in the midst of the joy and laughter, the crisis would come unexpectedly, and under the highlight, there was already an undercurrent.
02 After the glory of the river is falling
Everything is not without warning.
When KTV is hot, the real estate industry is also soaring. Around 2014, whether it is in the north, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, or in third- and fourth-tier cities, the rent of shops has risen accordingly.
As a heavy asset, high labor industry, such as Windsor, Hollywood, Charm KTV and other large chain brands, generally choose the core business district, the area is often two or three floors, thousands of square meters, rental pressure can be imagined.
Not only that, KTV's venues have to be renovated every two or three years, and the cost of decoration should not be underestimated. Wu Hai, the founder of Mei KTV, has said that the rent spent on monthly expenses in 2020 accounts for 33% of operating costs. Four years ago, that number was 25 percent.
To make matters worse, in 2015, the group purchase APP competed for the market at a low price, setting off an O2O war, and the KTV industry fell into white-hot competition.
Each KTV has to do its best, there are 8 yuan to sing for 3 hours, unlimited time periods; there are 22 yuan can be sung all night, the price is so low that it breaks through the bottoms, and the business situation is gradually declining. Some insiders admit that in recent years, the price of KTV has hardly risen, not only has not risen, but also decreased by about 50% compared with the previous two years.
Beginning in 2015, cash cabinets announced the closure of their first store in Beijing, "Foreign Money Cabinet", a brand that had dominated the mainland market with 18 stores in 2008, and only the last five remained at this time. In the same year, Wanda Group's KTV brand "Big Singer" also left the scene, and the tide of closure spread.
However, the nightmare is far from over. Since 2016, mini KTV has "grown wildly" under the blessing of capital, new consumption scenarios, a strong sense of participation, and a lower consumption threshold (3 yuan for singles, only 18 yuan for 1 hour of singing), further diverting the consumer groups that belong to KTV. According to the "General Report on the Development of China's Music Industry", in 2016, the number of traditional KTV in China directly fell by 60%.
In addition, aside from KTV itself, singing is also a matter that requires a threshold, in other words, this is not a project that everyone enjoys, especially for those who sing badly, they can only become "marginal people" who clap their hands or bury their heads in their mobile phones.
In response to this hard injury, the online K song platform "Sing It" and "National K Song" and other sudden, not only massive songs for free, but also according to the needs of users to choose different reverberation effects, equivalent to adding filters to the sound, everyone can be a singer. Compared with the two, KTV's advantages are gone.
▲Photo/iResearch
The copyright protection action has also made the operation of KTV difficult. In 2014, the China Audiovisual Copyright Collective Management Association launched intensive rights protection actions, suing more than 1,000 copyright infringement disputes within a year, according to the total size of the KTV market at that time was 80 billion yuan, charging 1% of the copyright fee, the music collection association can collect up to about 800 million yuan in copyright fees, and the cost of KTV has added a heavy amount.
In October 2018, the Music Collection Association issued the "Announcement on Stopping the Use of Some Songs Involved in Litigation" on its official website, requiring VOD (video on demand) manufacturers and KTV operators to withdraw more than 6,600 KTV classic tracks by October 31, which is tantamount to a thunderbolt in the clear sky.
In August 2021, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued new management opinions on karaoke music content, which became more and more stringent. Today's traffic songs, most of the copyright is in the hands of giants such as Tencent Music and NetEase Cloud Music, and offline KTV must first pay a lot of copyright fees to get new songs.
In the ups and downs, the emergence of the epidemic has become the last straw that overwhelmed the camel. Last year, the open letter of Beijing's "King of K Songs" caused a heated discussion, this per capita consumption of more than 2,000, so that Wang Sicong threw 2.5 million high-end KTV a night, during the epidemic period, only supported for two months, said that "the cost can not be carried", decided to terminate the labor contract with all employees.
At this point, the aura of KTV has receded, and the once "trend" symbol has left a chicken feather in vain.
03 Is there still a chance in the future?
Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river.
It's not that I didn't think about saving myself. In 2017, the Windsor KTV on Kunming Chuncheng Road was upgraded, and a KTV format called "W K-Bar" came out, the private room decoration was similar to a small bar, the interior was dominated by atmosphere lights, the decoration main body and style were distinctive, and the overall feeling of giving people a similar dark castle was similar.
In December 2018, Holliday KTV transformed its Huaihai Road store into a "music + hot pot" and opened from 5 to 11 p.m.
But consumers don't buy it. In the public reviews, the voice of complaining is endless, in addition to the expensive price, slow serving, general taste, and poor service, even the basic boiled water can not take the initiative to provide, most people said that they will not come a second time.
Judging from the results, the hot pot not only did not save the original KTV business, but even affected the original passenger flow. Careful netizens found that in a takeaway hot pot KTV, the 4-person hot pot set needs a total of 790 yuan, and if the same dish is eaten in the hot pot shop, it only needs about 300 yuan, plus a dozen beers priced at 240 yuan, in addition to dozens of yuan of box cost fees, roughly estimated, the merchant earned nearly 30% of the profit.
After the painting style deviated, a variety of cross-border methods such as foot bath KTV, fire bar KTV, barbecue KTV and so on appeared in various places, but the interlacing is like a mountain, and only a few successful people have succeeded.
Looking back from the beginning, the decline of the KTV industry is the result of the combined action of many factors such as rent, manpower, industrial environment, and consumption habits. The reason why KTV has been able to rise rapidly is because it has pulled the public into entertainment at the right time, giving people an unprecedented sense of entertainment experience.
But with the development of the times, especially the rapid development of the Internet, so that personal entertainment no longer rely on specific places, just like people do not have to go to Internet cafes to play games, do not have to go to chess and card clubs to find fun, naturally do not have to go to KTV to sing, the uniqueness of their needs no longer exists.
In addition, the update iteration of the mobile K song APP is extremely fast, not only to meet the simple singing needs, but also to continuously develop new tracks and gameplay, setting off the KTV eclipse.
Under the new consumer trend, young people have too many choices to win over KTV. Talk shows, escape rooms, werewolf killings, whichever one is brought out, is much more interesting than singing in a KTV. Especially in recent years, the popular "script killing", the country's stores have exceeded 30,000, KTV is difficult to monopolize the market in a unified way.
As the earliest batch of entertainment projects, KTV's business model has hardly changed over the years, and it is not surprising that the old book has been eaten and impacted.
Its rise and fall, its death is also sudden. In fact, offline KTV is still a big market, according to the "2020 China Music Industry Development Report", the KTV market size in 2019 was as high as 103.44 billion yuan, accounting for 26.18% of the total value of the music industry, still in the first position of the subdivision scale.
If KTV wants to regain its opportunities, breakthroughs and transformations are imminent. For example, expand entertainment content, widely absorb popular game types, and create a one-stop comprehensive entertainment body; or open up large and small boxes to meet different needs such as large parties and private parties, so as to share operating costs, but whether these models can be passed, all need to be verified, not a day's work.
Regardless of the outcome, there is not much time left for KTV.
Resources:
1. DT Finance's "History of the Demise of KTV in China: What Are Young People Playing Without KTV?" 》
2. Huashang Taoluo," Who Killed KTV? 》