Image source @ Visual China
Recently, the General Administration of Sport issued the "Notice on Further Doing a Good Job in Sports for the Elderly", which is the first sports policy for the elderly officially issued by the General Administration of Sports after the state issued the ultra-high-standard document "Opinions on Strengthening the Work on the Elderly in the New Era", which has received strong attention from the industry.
In people's impressions, compared to the family treadmill, wearing iWatch to measure heart rate, this youthful way of exercise, the elderly's fitness way is more "wild", a tree in the park, a horizontal bar, is their fitness stage, upside down, hanging in the air, standing, spinning over... Unbelievably skillful movements, even young fitness experts can not reach.
Foreign media once described the fitness scene of these elderly people, "no treadmill, no iPod, and no sweat-absorbing fabric clothes." No protein shakes, no hot yoga, no exercise recorders. With only climbing frames and incredible fitness levels, those elderly Chinese show human dexterity in Beijing's Temple of Heaven Park. ”
Uncle "exploded" the strength of his waist and abdomen
Although the enthusiasm of the elderly for fitness is far higher than that of young people, from the perspective of infrastructure, there are not many places suitable for the fitness of the elderly, and there are few institutions that provide professional fitness services for the elderly.
At present, the aging process of the mainland is increasing at a rate of 10 million people per year, and it is expected that by 2025, the elderly over 60 years old in the mainland will reach 300 million, which is a huge group of people, so that the sports and fitness market for the elderly will usher in the dawn.
Nowadays, sports for the elderly have also ushered in a favorable policy. So, what favorable policies does this Notice convey, and what new business opportunities can we explore from it? Can the domestic sports industry usher in the second growth curve?
01. General Administration of Sports: Encourage and guide all kinds of entities to develop the sports and fitness service industry for the elderly
According to the requirements of the "Notice", vigorously develop the sports industry of the elderly, maintain and protect the sports and fitness rights and interests of the elderly, and support more sports venues to provide fitness services to the elderly.
When building sports parks, national fitness centers and other venues and facilities, fully consider the needs of the elderly, expand the fitness activity space for the elderly, and provide fitness places that are more suitable for the characteristics and needs of the elderly. Provide necessary assistance for the elderly to use venue facilities and equipment, and solve the problem of intelligent technology in sports and sports for the elderly.
At the same time, we will promote fitness running, tai chi, martial arts, square dance, table tennis and other sports suitable for the elderly, provide opportunities for the elderly to compete, perform and communicate, and enrich the cultural and sports life of the elderly.
In terms of scientific fitness guidance for the elderly, we carry out research and exploration on the integration of physical medicine and physical nutrition for the elderly, and provide services for the elderly in physical fitness measurement, prevention and treatment of chronic diseases, sports nutrition and other aspects.
The "Notice" proposes to comprehensively promote the sports work of the elderly, improve the relevant institutional mechanisms, and create a sports and fitness atmosphere for the elderly. Improve the financial input policy and multi-channel financing mechanism to support the sports work of the elderly, increase financial support, and support the purchase of public services by sports social organizations for the elderly. Encourage and guide all kinds of entities to develop the sports and fitness service industry for the elderly, and jointly promote the development of sports work for the elderly.
It can be seen that from infrastructure construction, to the promotion of sports projects, sports and medical integration services, and then to financial support, new momentum has been injected into the development of the sports market for the elderly.
02. What are the new business opportunities for sports and fitness for the elderly?
With the deepening of China's aging, based on the sports and fitness needs of the elderly, new market space has also been derived, which is worthy of consideration and discussion by relevant practitioners.
1. Gym for the elderly
A very important fitness place for urban residents is the gym, but there are very few gyms specially customized for the elderly on the market, in contrast, the development momentum of foreign gym brands for the elderly is extremely rapid.
In the United States, the mature elderly fitness brand Silver Sneakers, with more than 16,000 fitness venues in the United States, has a considerable scale; in Japan, curves, Joy Reha and other elderly chain fitness brands have emerged. Notably, Curves' main customer base is older women over the age of 60 and has 4,500 clubs worldwide.
Image source @ Visual China
These gym brands, the type of course and young people are not much different, swimming, yoga, aerobics, gymnastics are included, the difference is that according to the physical state of the elderly, to adjust the training intensity of each course, including the launch of a series of customized training courses, but also involves rehabilitation nursing, rehabilitation physiotherapy and other businesses, to meet the health needs of the elderly to the greatest extent.
Looking at the domestic market, titanium media app noted that the gym embedded in the community, customized for the elderly, has been launched in Nanjing, Changsha, Shanghai and other places since the end of 2020.
Taking the "Heart Fun Space • Elderly Sports and Health Home" in Shanghai as an example, this gym brand for the elderly adopts a monthly card fee of 99 yuan, and the third-party institution Shangti Health provides physical fitness testing, basic health monitoring, chronic disease sports intervention, sports rehabilitation training, knowledge lectures, entertainment and social services, etc., which is essentially a sports and health care center.
Compared with the ordinary gym charges of thousands of thousands, this kind of elderly gym tends to be public welfare, and more is to adopt the service model of combining physical and health care, which is the service model advocated in the "Notice".
In terms of personalized fitness, the elderly also have a huge demand, such as table tennis halls, badminton halls, swimming pools, etc., this market is still ahead of the foreign countries, such as Singapore's Happy Fish is specially for the elderly to launch swimming lessons, attracting the elderly to pay.
At present, there are still very few commercial gyms for the elderly in the market, drawing on the service model of mature foreign gym brands, and integrating physical and health care services, or opening up new business opportunities.
2. Online fitness
Since the epidemic has been over two years, many young people have long been accustomed to following the big screen "cloud fitness", and the rich course content has allowed young people to practice freely and enjoy it.
Fitness classes for the elderly, however, are few and far between. According to the Institute of Instant Construction, there is a serious shortage of professional fitness content specifically for the elderly in the market, and the proportion of online fitness service providers for the elderly does not exceed 4%.
This also just indicates a lot of market prospects, such as keep, Leke, Gollum and other online fitness giants, they have a huge number of online courses, can provide more professional fitness content for the elderly, but the elderly in the use of smart machines, there is still a certain threshold, the need to further educate users.
The short video platform is also a gathering place for the elderly "cloud fitness", and there are also elderly aerobics and square dances on Douyin and Kuaishou, but they have not yet evolved a phenomenon-level fitness content brand.
It is worth noting that doing a vertical community for middle-aged and elderly people and entering the market with sports and fitness content is also an operating model.
Previously, the popular "jelly bean" community in the big mom group attracted users by outputting square dance teaching videos, and retained and active users with square dance courses + content communities + short videos, and the number of users in 2019 broke the 200 million mark.
It is understood that Jelly Beans has also launched a "jump at home" area, the elderly can cast the screen from the mobile phone to the TV, follow the COACH in the TV to do exercises, and the popular fitness methods are much the same.
In short, online fitness should not only focus on young people, energetic elderly people also need good courses to complete a "both inside and outside" physical and mental journey, online fitness service providers continue to develop fitness content that meets the tastes of the elderly, it is possible to open up a new world.
3. Sports equipment
At present, the available fitness equipment category for the elderly is single, the function is relatively simple, and it does not meet the sports training needs of the elderly, and the aging sports equipment has thus become a new outlet.
According to the titanium media App, some domestic manufacturers have launched corresponding products, such as fitness equipment manufacturers "Shuhua" for the elderly to launch treadmill series, exercise bike series, strength training series of three categories of products, sports rehabilitation service providers "still physical health" fitness equipment have been treated with appropriate aging, more focus on the health needs of the elderly.
It is worth noting that intelligent fitness equipment can also reduce the threshold for the elderly to use fitness equipment to a certain extent, foreign manufacturers have been involved in this field, such as the United States The Exercise Coach uses artificial intelligence to identify the physical limitations of elderly users, and formulate corresponding fitness plans, Norwegian startup Motitech, through special dynamic bicycles and visual technology, to meet the special sports needs of the elderly.
Motitech spinning bikes
In recent years, the rise of smart fitness mirror companies in China has also entered the elderly market with fitness content, such as FITNESS research and development of Tai Chi Zen, Five Birds Opera and other sports courses, FITMORE has also launched traditional Chinese fitness projects such as Tai Chi and Baduanjin, so as to attract the elderly to punch in fitness.
In addition, the domestic Keep, Leke two major Internet fitness giants, respectively launched a dynamic bicycle, intelligent fitness mirror products, although its user group is still dominated by young people, but under the market trend, the future may also appear "old age version" of fitness hardware products.
Relatively speaking, China has a complete industrial chain to cut into the field of ageing sports equipment, which can not only allow the elderly to exercise more freely and healthily, but also open up a new market space.
It is estimated that by 2030, the average life expectancy of Chinese people will increase to 79 years old, and with tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of elderly people joining the fitness army, it will undoubtedly provide sufficient impetus for the secondary growth of the domestic sports industry.
However, we must also be soberly aware that although there is a favorable policy blessing, there is still a long way to go in terms of infrastructure construction, concept promotion, and integration of online and offline industrial chains.
From this point of view, the development of the domestic fitness industry for the elderly still has a long way to go. (This article was first published in the Titanium Media APP, the author | Liu Muzong)