A few days ago, "China's existing KTV companies are less than half of seven years ago" and "why are people going to KTV now less" have successively appeared on hot searches, evoking the collective memories of a generation. According to the data, in the first half of 2021, the number of KTV enterprise registrations fell by 41.3% year-on-year; in the past five years, the sales volume of KTV-related enterprises has reached 18,000. From "top stream" to "past", KTV seems to be no longer beautiful. Is this really the case? The reporter interviewed a number of operators and consumers.
Intern Ren Huajiao Yangzi Evening News/Purple Cow News trainee reporter Wang Can
The current state of the industry
How much does it cost to go to kTV once? Singing for half a day is less than 100 yuan
After 00, Wu told reporters that in the past year, he went to KTV 4 times, mainly for friend gatherings, classmate gatherings and club building. Now the price of KTV is also relatively cheap, including a three- or four-hour private room less than a hundred yuan, and it is very cost-effective for everyone to share it equally.
Yangzi Evening News reporter inquiry found that to the chain brand "Star Party" opened in Nanjing Xuanwu Lake business circle of a store as an example, it sets different prices according to different time periods, weekends and evenings are more expensive, weekday afternoons are the cheapest, can accommodate 2-4 people of small private rooms only 68 yuan. Flattened down, each person can enjoy 6 hours of singing time for as little as 17 yuan.
Declining profits and squeezing KTV faces many challenges
According to enterprise investigation data, from the perspective of new enterprises, the registration volume of related enterprises fell by 38.8% in 2020, and the number of registrations in the first half of this year decreased by 41.3% year-on-year. From the perspective of deregistration sales, in the past five years, the sales volume of KTV-related enterprises has shown an increasing trend, with a total of 18,000.
At the same time as the offline KTV market is declining, online K song software is gradually popular, and the user market size is increasing year by year.
The number of enterprise cancellations has increased, the number of new registrations has decreased, and the online K song software has squeezed the living space... The development of KTV faces many problems. With the rise of various new social methods such as secret rooms, script killing, and camping, some people are worried about whether traditional KTV is facing great challenges in terms of entertainment forms and experiences.
What do industry insiders think
Script killing, board games... Not a challenge but an opportunity
In recent years, as new forms of entertainment such as script killing and escape rooms have become popular among young people, KTV no longer seems to be the only option.
The Yangtze Evening News reporter interviewed a singing bar in Shanghai, Mai Song KTV, and the store manager said that the change in consumer market demand is a good thing for KTV. His KTV introduced board games in 2020 and began script-killing trial operations last month. The reporter saw on the platform that the K song room was 119 yuan in the small private room and 169 yuan in the middle private room during the day, and it could be played for 4 hours. And the script kills 138 yuan for one person, 5 people at the minimum, optional 8 hours.
The store manager told reporters: "The price of a single batch of revenue for the script killing is very impressive, and there is no trend of involution in the industry at present, and the pricing is relatively high." In contrast, the traditional KTV industry tends to be saturated, facing the threat of price war, and the price of private rooms has never been raised. KTV stores already have venues, add some low-cost, high-profit new service projects, but also to provide customers with a better experience, why not? ”
Under the pain, the "social space" is still the foothold
Under the endless wave of emerging formats, how can KTV find a foothold?
The manager of a branch of Mei KTV Wuxi said that he believes that the change in public consumption interest has not had much impact on KTV's business. KTV as a social platform has an irreplaceable function, for example, many customers can talk about business and business when they go to KTV to sing.
The manager of another national chain of mass seller KTV Jiangsu branch said: "In recent years, the KTV industry is a double day of ice and fire, and the better the development is, the better it is, and if it is not done well, it is likely to be on the verge of bankruptcy." Our store is developing well, from more than 20 stores in 2018 to 2021, and stationed in many of the top 20 shopping centers and consumption gathering points in the country. The store manager introduced, "On the one hand, because the service standards and quality have been done, the employees have been integrated training." On the other hand, it has innovated the business project, some branches also sell specialty coffee and milk tea, some stores are integrated into private theaters, and the script killing will soon be prepared. We hope that KTV can get rid of the traditional definition of it and make it a social space with new attributes, not just 'KTV'. ”
In the view of an industry insider, the pain point or essence of KTV is social. There is never an end to socializing. KTV is providing a social space that can fully meet the interactive pain points of social emotions.
Source: Yangtze Evening News