Image source@Visual China
文 | 未来商业观察，作者 | 凡一，编辑 | 方远
At the beginning of 2024, a few months after the concept of night school exploded, a large number of Xiaohongshu accounts that had sent recruitment messages have fallen into a state of suspension.
People who were eager to catch up with the night school are fleeing one after another.
At a time when emotions are sluggish in all walks of life, many people regard night schools as a hope for emotional economic development, and they rush to join it, but in the end, they come to naught.
Behind the silence is the unsustainable business model of night schools, and the so-called "night school economy" is likely to be a false proposition.
The tuyere is fleeting
At the end of October 2023, on the Xiaohongshu platform, a Xiaohongshu account called "Night School Direct Express" posted the account's first post of "Beijing Night School Convocation".
The content quickly attracted the attention of netizens, and in the comment area, everyone left messages, and the popularity of the post continued to rise. Since then, the account has successively posted student solicitations for different courses, but the number of comments has been declining.
Twenty-four days later, the account posted a post titled "Night School Reboots", but no one followed it. Since then, the account has not posted any content related to night school.
On Xiaohongshu, there are more and more night school accounts similar to those that have been suspended. And the starting point of this round of fashion began with the explosion of night schools in Shanghai last winter.
At that time, the autumn class of Shanghai Citizen Night School began to register, in addition to singing, dancing, musical instruments, there are makeup, cross talk, carpenter, pastry, wine tasting, embroidery, blue dyeing, Shanghainese and other content, 12 classes are priced at only 500 yuan.
After the registration opened, more than 650,000 people competed for 10,000 course places, and the platform was instantly paralyzed.
The curriculum is both practical and emotional, and at the same time has the advantage of low prices, so the craze for evening classes quickly spread among young people and everywhere in just a few months.
In less than two months, the total number of views of the topic of "night school" on Xiaohongshu reached more than 8.9 million, and the search volume of "night school" on Dianping increased by 980% year-on-year, and the number of related notes and evaluations increased by 226% year-on-year.
During the evening rush hour, young people who swiped their mobile phones in the subway found a way to escape the pressure of life after work through the information of night school on the hot search list, so they asked how to sign up.
Under the explosion of demand, night schools in major cities have sprung up, and accounts similar to "night school through trains" have sprung up everywhere on social platforms. Beijing Night School, Xi'an Night School, Chengdu Night School, Tianjin Night School, and Changsha Night School have all started recruiting students.
But in the process of organizing the night school, everyone began to hit a wall.
There are night school organizers who have joined forces with the resources of educational institutions to hold three classes before and after, but none of them have succeeded in joining a group. Some organizers succeeded in starting the class, but after spending a lot of time and labor costs, they almost lost their wives and soldiers.
There are also people who are trapped in the cost of venues, teaching materials, teachers, etc., and face the dilemma of losing money if they continue to hold classes, and disbanding members will fall short, and they are in a dilemma.
It is the consensus of most night school organizers that the amount is fast, it is difficult to form a group, and even if it is a group, it is difficult to make a profit.
After struggling to find a way out, night school organizers gradually realized that it was not reasonable to treat night school as a business model.
It's hard every step of the way
The irrationality of the business model of night school is reflected in almost every organizational process.
After the rise of the night school "boom", a group of individual entrepreneurs rushed to enter the market. While posting recruitment information on various social platforms, they also connected with training institutions and acted as intermediaries, also known as night school managers.
Intermediaries are responsible for recruiting students and are therefore the first link in the night school chain.
Based on the enthusiasm of young people, intermediaries posted on social platforms to attract traffic, introduced those who were willing to enter WeChat groups, etc., further screened students with registration intentions, and finally combined with students' interests, cooperated with training institutions to implement them on the class schedule.
After a certain number of applicants have been registered, the course will be opened, and the intermediary will take a share of it.
On the surface, the intermediary has the traffic advantage of the topic, and it does not need to spend too much money and cost, which is a profitable business. However, the intermediaries soon found that it was easy to use the popularity of the topic to recruit prospective students, but the probability of completing the course was extremely low.
The completion of the course depends on whether the area, time, venue and other factors of the class are consistent with the students. There may be a thousand interests for a thousand students, and the distance of the course and the lack of interest in the content alone have turned most students away.
Some night school agents said that even if these two points meet the requirements of students, when to start classes is a headache for them. Everyone's free time is not uniform, some people are free on weekends, some people only have time on Wednesday nights, and it is difficult to adjust.
Signing up for night classes turned into group classes, and all the factors began to be uncontrollable, and in the end, the number of people who could actually start each course was only in the single digits.
The problem arose again when the night school agents handed over the students who were finally eligible for the start of the course to the training provider.
Night school intermediaries are mixed, have no experience in education and training, and during the period of posting and drainage, the course products have not yet been formed, and some intermediaries are eager to seize this wave of cash in time, so there will be exaggerated publicity in the early stage.
The consequence of the separation of the early recruiter from the later training institution is that many students find that the quality of the course does not meet the expected effect after taking the course. As a result, the training provider bears the risk of the trainee requesting a refund.
There are also training institutions that bypass intermediaries and prepare courses and recruit trainees on their own, hoping to ensure the quality of the courses, but the results are not satisfactory.
Since the rise of night classes, both young people and practitioners have almost defaulted to the price setting of 500 yuan for 12 lessons. However, for courses such as pottery and oil painting, the course fee of 500 yuan is almost unprofitable in addition to covering the cost of venues and materials.
If experienced teachers are hired, the institution is at risk of losing money.
From joining a group to ensure the quality of the course, and then to making a profit, whether it is a night school intermediary or a training institution, it is difficult step by step in this process.
It is a public welfare not a business
The night school craze has risen because of the low price, and in fact, the cost of night school is never low.
Initially, the main task of evening schools in the country was to eliminate illiteracy, and the curriculum consisted of simple cultural classes and skills training. After the reform and opening up, night schools focused on cultivating practical skills and innovation ability in accordance with economic development.
Later, with the popularization of higher education and the Internet, night classes rarely appeared in people's field of vision. But night schools are not gone, but are mainly aimed at middle-aged and elderly groups, as a pastime for retirees.
However, no matter what the period, the night school is basically a matchmaking project between the local government, and the community, village committee, cultural center, training institution, and art team cooperate to create it.
For example, Guangzhou has previously opened a Chinese New Year's Eve School for middle-aged and elderly people, organized by the Municipal Youth Cultural Palace, with courses including baseball, freestyle basketball, Wing Chun, etc., all teachers are professionals, and the courses are completely free.
The starting point of the economic explosion of the night school, the Shanghai Citizen Art Night School, is also a public welfare project organized by the Shanghai Mass Art Museum.
At the beginning of its establishment, Shanghai Night School only offered courses such as Chinese painting and calligraphy for middle-aged and elderly groups. Later, new courses such as floral arrangement, African drumming, and wine tasting were added to the night school, and the fee for 12 classes was 500 yuan, which gradually attracted the attention of young people.
Behind the low tuition fees are government subsidies in the cultural field, or public welfare cooperation with some teachers and institutions.
Therefore, the night school itself has the nature of public welfare. It's just that in the night school boom, entrepreneurs only replicated its low price advantage of 500 yuan for 12 classes, but they did not have the strength to digest the cost, and finally could only find a way out due to the difficulty of making profits.
As a public welfare project, with the support of the government, night school has become a regular community project, and as a business, the business model of interest school, night school is actually not suitable for small and micro entrepreneurs.
When the environment is confused, everyone wants to break through the predicament by seizing the outlet, but before entering the game, it is still necessary to figure out the most basic proposition.