Author 丨 Chen Xiao
Editor 丨Fang Yu
Image source 丨 Photo network
In Shanghai Hang Lung Mall and Qiantan Taikoo Li, luxury goods gatherings and high-end daily necessities, or Starbucks and Internet celebrity cafes, not only young people who take photos and punch cards, but also many brightly dressed uncles and aunts.
These new retirees belonging to the 1950s and 60s have changed significantly from the middle-aged and elderly people who once had a public perception, who have received a relatively good education and have a more advanced and clear understanding of the pursuit of retirement life. They will also swipe short videos, group online shopping, take photos and punch cards, and are willing to pay for novelties and interests.
In the "2018-2024 Analysis Report on the Competitive Status and Investment Prospects of China's Wealth Management Industry" released by Zhiyan Consulting, it is written that as of 2017, middle-aged and elderly people aged 40 and above accounted for 62% of the wealth of society, and young people under 40 accounted for only 38%.
As a result, the gaze of capital has also begun to shift from the increasingly "cut" young people to the middle-aged and elderly groups who are "rich and idle". Recently, the domestic middle-aged and elderly online interest community Red Pine announced that it has obtained financing of 100 million yuan, led by BAI Capital, Jingwei Venture Capital, Genesis Partner Capital CCV, etc.; the "retirement club" that focuses on customized tourism for the middle-aged and elderly also announced the completion of tens of millions of financing in 2020; the elderly network university Le retired in April 2020 completed tens of millions of yuan A round of financing...
However, is the money of the middle-aged and elderly groups really easy to earn?
Silver-haired economy, thunder and rain points small
I have to admit that today's Chinese society is moving towards an "aging society".
According to the data of the seventh national census in 2021, there are 260 million people over the age of 60, an increase of 5.44% compared with the data of the sixth national census. The population aged 65 and over exceeded 190 million, accounting for 13.50%.
According to the "Report on the Development of China's Aging Industry" released by the National Committee on Aging, between 2014 and 2050, the consumption potential of the elderly population in the mainland will increase from 4 trillion yuan to about 106 trillion yuan, accounting for 33% of GDP, becoming the country with the largest market potential for the aging industry in the world.
The silver economy has been blowing for a long time. However, serving the elderly seems to be a blue ocean, but there are not many actual entrants.
"In the past few years, there were nearly 400 million elderly people in China, but there were less than 2,000 Internet services for the elderly." According to Li Jia, deputy director of the Pangu Think Tank Research Center for Aging Society, the current mainland silver-haired economy is still in a state of "high attention and participation but not high".
In other words, many people recognize the huge potential of the silver economy, but they have not taken action. The reason is that Li Jia believes that there are two main reasons: one is because the change of population is a subtle process, and the other is to adjust to this market, and the company needs to redesign all its programs, including products, marketing, etc., which is a major transformation for enterprises and takes some time.
In addition, from the perspective of consumer psychology, the difficulty of making money for the middle-aged and elderly groups is almost the consensus in the industry. Compared with young people, most of the elderly's economic concept is still based on frugality, and they live within their reach. Between 2010 and 2015, there was a wave of elderly e-commerce in China, but in the end, this wind only blew a ripple in the long river of time. The reason for the failure is that most of the online consumption is the relatives of the elderly, not the elderly themselves, and the middle-aged and elderly people lack the awareness of online consumption.
In addition to e-commerce platforms, vertical apps have also become popular. In the heyday of the square dance circuit, there were more than 60 square dance apps on the market, of which one of the leading startups, "Jelly Bean", was more representative.
Jelly beans mainly start from the interests of middle-aged and elderly users, which meets the needs of many elderly people who like to dance square dance, and was made in 2015. Through the initial positioning of "learning to dance tools", it first won the favor of the core KOL square dance leader, so that many middle-aged and elderly users began to spread spontaneously, and Jelly Beans obtained a high user base in a short period of time.
Jelly Bean's main sources of profit are video course sales and advertising revenue, but also sell some square dance costumes and utensils online, Jelly Bean has also explored the e-commerce model, trying to broaden the boundaries of profitability, but not very optimistic.
Although middle-aged and elderly users are attracted through content as the entry point, compared with young people who are more prone to impulsive consumption, middle-aged and elderly users are less willing to consume, and they need to cultivate habits that take a long time. And relatively speaking, the payment scenario is relatively narrow, and the vertical platform for middle-aged and elderly users often has narrow monetization channels and a longer return cycle.
Is "shouting" better than "teaching to sell"?
In fact, the elderly can freely dispose of the time is relatively rich, many elderly people will start from the interest, try to arrange their old age life as colorful as possible, in large and medium-sized cities, the elderly painting classes, calligraphy classes emerge in an endless stream. This actually gives new inspiration to the silver economy.
"The first batch of startups actually provided a simple tool-based product, and now I think the new retirees are no longer satisfied with simple online products, but also want to pursue lifestyle and spiritual satisfaction." Congjia, vice president of investment at BAI Capital, said to Startup Bang.
Therefore, capital seeks to find a breakthrough in the silver economy at the intellectual and social level.
Affected by the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, the habits of middle-aged and elderly people on the Internet have been cultivated. With the help of smartphones equipped with mobile Internet, they can achieve spiritual and material satisfaction through online socialization, learning interest, knowledge popularization, and so on.
According to the 48th Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet Network released by the China Internet Information Center, as of June last year, the scale of mainland Internet users has reached 1.011 billion, of which the scale of middle-aged and elderly netizens has grown the fastest, accounting for 28% of internet users aged 50 and above, with a scale of nearly 300 million.
With the help of this outlet, a number of middle-aged and elderly knowledge platforms have emerged, such as the elderly housekeeper who provides educational content for the B-side, and the beautiful golden year of exploring the OMO model... With rich content, these platforms firmly grasp the entertainment and emotional needs of middle-aged and elderly people.
The Red Pine Classroom, which has completed nearly 100 million yuan of financing, is a content social vertical platform for middle-aged and elderly people. Similar to most online universities for the elderly, Red Pine Classroom also uses "Mini Program + Public Account" as the carrier to provide a variety of services such as online entertainment, live courses, e-commerce shopping and so on.
Click on the Red Pine App, and what comes into your eyes is the 6 big characters of "learn knowledge and make friends". The app provides interest courses such as vocal music, musical instruments, dance, calligraphy, painting, and opera, which is like an online "interest school for the elderly".
Slightly different is that The Red Pine Classroom adopts the "small station" model, the platform is composed of multiple sites, and the "webmaster" is generally the teacher of a certain course, who can build his own "small station" on the platform to provide users with learning, social and other functions. As a platform party, Red Pine Classroom will provide community operation tools to webmasters, such as live broadcasts, group chats, spaces, gatherings, etc., to help webmasters operate private domain traffic; while users can learn in group chats, live broadcast rooms and other areas or communicate with other users to meet learning and social needs.
In addition, the Red Pine platform provides webmasters with a way to monetize their goods. In the webmaster's home page column, a product column is set up, where the webmaster can list products. Click Buy, you will jump to the "Red Pine Strict Selection" WeChat Mini Program. However, the products on its shelves are mainly for middle-aged and elderly audiences, so they are mainly paid courses, books, musical instruments, calligraphy and painting utensils, health care and nutrition products and small fruit specialties.
Can middle-aged and elderly people who have no experience in online social networking have a special love for a mobile app and realize the transformation from learning interests, social networking to consumer products? Congjia believes that middle-aged and elderly consumers pay more attention to trust when making consumption decisions, and rarely meet with different ideas after choosing a product. "From the data point of view, consumers' willingness to pay is quite strong."
In addition to the foreseeable business model path of middle-aged and elderly education, middle-aged and elderly customized tourism has also burst out of vitality, although the development of the epidemic in the past two years has been slow, the "retirement club" has previously attracted the attention of many capitals in terms of tourism for the middle and elderly, the retirement club since the launch of the tourism business in 2015, the annual revenue has risen by 100 million yuan a year, and in 2019, the revenue achieved in Shanghai has reached 400 million yuan.
"The epidemic has affected the pace of development of middle-aged and elderly customized tours, but there are still traces of the development of middle-aged and elderly customized tours in Japan, and the future development of China can still be expected." Congjia said.
In addition to the importance that startups attach to middle-aged and elderly consumers, major e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, JD.com, and Pinduoduo have also launched "age-appropriate versions". Recently, a "Friend Video" APP that is inextricably linked to Xiaohongshu has also been quietly launched. According to the data of Tianyancha, Fu Ping, the supervisor of "Youyou Video", is the technical leader of Xiaohongshu mobile terminal. This has to make the outside world speculate that the APP or Xiaohongshu layout of the new "test field" of the elderly market.
"Age-appropriate products are also a good attempt. The silver economy is a medium- and long-term business, and there are many incisions around the food, clothing, housing and transportation of middle-aged and elderly consumers, but the business model and consumption habits need to be slowly cultivated. If you want to make quick money, this field is not suitable. Congjia said.