The gold diggers behind the silver economy .

Visual China.

Text |Fixed Focus, Author |Tang Yahua, editor |Dawn.

Nowadays, the interest of middle-aged and elderly people in learning has become a new trend and trend. Eager to enrich their spiritual life, the middle-aged and elderly people who have retired actively join various interest classes to learn Tai Chi, physical fitness, singing, painting, calligraphy, photography and various musical instruments.

The elderly rushed to sign up for the university for the elderly, which led to the unprecedented popularity of the university for the elderly in various places, and "it is difficult to find one". Due to the difficulty in grabbing places in universities for the elderly, and the limited content and number of subjects that can be reported, the spillover demand has also driven a number of enterprises focusing on the interest of middle-aged and elderly people.

For the elderly, through hobby learning, they can enrich their daily routine, enhance their social skills, relieve stress and anxiety, and promote physical health. For the companies behind it, "interest learning", which is the easiest field to attract middle-aged and elderly people, can be used as an entry point for them to enter the middle-aged and elderly market and leverage the trillion-dollar "silver economy".

Before that, we need to explain why middle-aged and older people are willing to pay for their interest in learningWhat is the current state of this area?What are the prospects for winning this track?

Yun Fei is 50 years old this year, just retired at the beginning of the year, missed the spring class of the University for the Elderly due to her age, and in June, she was the first to sign up and lock in the place for the fall semester.

Before retirement, Yun Fei had more hobbies, she bought a piano last year, and once enrolled in a training class to learn one-on-one with the teacher for a period of time, and then mainly relied on her own exploration, she has always wanted to systematically learn the basic knowledge of the piano. Singing has been her hobby for many years, and she also goes to the gym to dance some dances every day.

After retirement, the time is free, and the courses of the University for the Elderly are also very rich, including ** class, dance, painting, calligraphy, photography, **production, etc., Yun Fei wants to learn a lot, but the University for the Elderly only allows a maximum of three courses, and finally she chose piano, dance, vocal music, these three courses, and the painting and photography that she is also interested in have not been reported for the time being. The courses of the University for the Elderly are very affordable, the tuition fee for piano is 300 yuan per semester, and the singing and dancing are both 200 yuan, and each subject has one class per week, with 10-30 students in a class.

After a few months, Yun Fei is quite satisfied with these courses, "There are two subjects where the teachers are more professional, and only one subject is slightly worse than the teacher, and it is said that the teacher will be changed next semester."On the whole, I have made great progress, and I will continue to report next semester

There is one thing that particularly touches Yun Fei in the interest class of the university for the elderly, it snowed heavily not long ago, and there happened to be a dance class that day, she was considering that the road was slippery in the snow and the distance was not close, so she wanted to ask for leave and not go to class. However, after a fierce ideological struggle, Yun Fei still went.

To her surprise, all 15 of her classmates arrived. According to her understanding, some students are nearly 70 years old, some are not in good health, some are not good at dancing and are often criticized by teachers, and some live very far away and have to travel to the bus and subway to get there. Even so, not a single person took a leave of absence.

I was very touched at the time, these elderly people braved the wind and snow for their hobbies, and overcame difficulties to attend classes, which shows that they really love these courses, and they are also very self-disciplined, and cherish the learning opportunities, and I was touched by the enthusiasm of my classmates. As the youngest student in the class, Yun Fei secretly thought that she couldn't hold back and was more energetic in learning.

Originally, Yun Fei came to study, in order to enjoy her body and mind, while exercising, she had a good mood and made her life more fulfilling. After the session, she actually felt better than expected. After working for many years, she found the state of school again, and she strongly felt that she was young again. "It's rare that after retirement, I can do what I love without caring about other people's eyes, and I feel more free spirit. ”

Zhou Zhou, a post-70s generation from Chongqing, also went to the University for the Elderly, and chose Hulusi for musical instruments, because she had never been in contact with musical instruments before, and wanted to break through, she also chose mobile phone photography, in order to record her life after retirement, she also signed up for catwalk classes, hoping to improve her temperament. Her university for the elderly only costs 100 yuan per semester.

At the beginning of the class, she also asked the teacher, can a ** white like her learn cucurbit?The teacher said that as long as you are willing to study seriously, there is absolutely no problem, and you can perform on stage after one semester. Later, Zhou Zhou found out that this was indeed the case, and when reporting on the performance, the students all contributed wonderful programs.

The mobile phone photography class was very cheerful, not long after learning, the Douyin of the students in the learning group was posted one after another, and the laughter continued, which really achieved the effect of happy learning. Zhou Zhou said.

In her opinion,Every time she finishes a course, she will gain knowledge, new friends, and a good mood. "Chatting with the students of the elderly university, I will find that after decades of ups and downs in life, in addition to their rich life and life experience, they also have open-mindedness, transparency and optimism after experiencing ups and downs, which gives me an additional perspective to look at things. Many of them are very motivated to study and can endure hardships, which also makes me more motivated. ”

In addition to the interest classes of the University for the Elderly, Zhou Zhou also signed up for English online classes and yoga classes, learning English mainly to say goodbye to his previous "dumb English", to use when traveling abroad, and to choose the form of online online classes in order to make it easier to use time.

The feeling of taking these courses week after week is: ".The interest class for the elderly is far more exciting than I imagined, if you are bored after retirement, it is a good choice to learn something, there is no talent and hobbies, you can cultivate and learn now, now is really your own life, you must enjoy it. Of course, she also emphasized that you should do what you can in interest classes, and you should not be greedy.

It is not difficult to see from many middle-aged and elderly people that a wave of interest classes is vigorously advancing.

In the track of interest education for middle-aged and elderly people, there are not only first-class subsidized universities for the elderly, but also institutions that cooperate with enterprises to run schools, as well as purely commercial enterprises.

In terms of content, the education and training for middle-aged and elderly groups on the market mainly include culture and art, health care, financial management, etc., and some institutions are actively exploring some new projects related to traditional culture, such as paper-cutting, straw weaving, tie-dyeing, dough molding, and dotting cui in intangible cultural heritage.

At present, the supply of interest learning in the market is obviously insufficient. When the enrollment of universities for the elderly in the fall semester of 2023 opens, there are long queues in the offline registration channels of some schools, and all the places for online registration are sold out within a few minutes, and the elderly also have "difficulty in going to school".

Xiong Bingqi, an expert in the education industry, mentioned that the university for the elderly is the main supply mode of education for the elderly, because there are only one or two universities for the elderly organized by the first in many places, and the degree is limited, the elderly are "admitted" to the university for the elderly, and they have been wanting to study, which leads to the tension of the "degree" of the university for the elderly. The increase in the elderly population also means that the demand for education for the elderly increases, and the university for the elderly is "hard to find", reflecting the insufficient supply of education for the elderly.

To expand the supply of education for the elderly, we should give full play to the role of schools, communities, elderly care institutions, and social organizations, and at the same time integrate online and offline education resources for the elderly. Xiong Bingqi said.

In fact, there are not a few enterprises that are making efforts in the "silver economy". Among them, the largest number of large and small training courses on the market, in addition, many Internet companies have also begun to enter.

Specifically, the Internet-biased interest learning platforms for the middle-aged and elderly include: middle-aged and elderly interest learning platforms extended from the content of the first-class learning business, such as the Qianqi School under the Quantum Song, the Interest Island (formerly the Qianliao Special Training Camp), the Lychee Micro Course, and the Elephant EducationThere are also Red Pine School, Jelly Bean Square Dance, Yibai, Music Singing Family, and Family Tour Academy, which are developed from the upstream and downstream of the pension life service and industry.

This type of platform covers similar content to senior universitiesThe difference lies in bringing the Internet model into the interest learning of middle-aged and elderly people, integrating online and offline, and superimposing various age-appropriate tools to make interest learning easier to reach.

Yun Fei mentioned that she can accept commercial training courses, because the basic content of the university for the elderly is relatively basic, and she wants to learn more advanced content after learning, in addition, there are some things she wants to learn that the university for the elderly does not have, such as literature, art appreciation and other highly advanced content.

Online and offline formats are equally important in the interest learning of middle-aged and elderly people. In Yunfei's view, some interactive courses are better offline, and face-to-face communication between people is more direct and warm. Online can be used as a good supplement, for example, when the weather is not good, or you can't leave home because of something, or you want to take advantage of fragmented time, the advantages of online classes can be brought into play.

In this field, many companies have received good responses from the capital and market side. **Personal Interest**Learning service provider Quantum Song has been listed on the NASDAQ in January 2023, and one of its core businesses, "Thousand Feet Academy", is positioned as a learning platform for middle-aged and elderly people, and they have launched personal interest course content for the elderly, including calligraphy lessons, piano lessons, standing pile lessons, etc. The Red Pine Academy, a learning community for middle-aged and elderly people, will also complete the A+ round of financing in 2022, with investors such as BAI, Jingwei Venture Capital, and Genesis Partner Capital.

As for how to do it, the user's appeal is, "First of all, the content should be good, and secondly, it is important to be cost-effectiveYun Fei said.

This requires the means and tools of the Internet to improve the quality of course content and the operational efficiency of enterprises.

The approach of Qianqi Academy is to allow middle-aged and elderly users to fully integrate into digitalization and the Internet, such as the company's self-developed intelligent learning tools for the elderly, which effectively improves the flexibility and convenience of learning, and allows the elderly to learn at home or in an environment of their choice through live broadcast, community and online and offline integrated teaching methods, providing refined, professional and diversified teaching services for the middle-aged and elderly, and promoting their contact and use of new technologies.

Interest training for the elderly has become a "dark horse" in the education track.

Sixty years ago, there were more than 20 million newborns in China every year, and in recent years, this generation has been retiring. With the acceleration of the aging society, the "silver economy" has become the next trillion blue ocean market. Actively exploring the field of "interest learning" in the silver economy is not only in line with the policy orientation, but also has broad market prospects.

According to the Blue Book of Silver Economy released by CIC, as of 2020, China's population aged 65 and above has reached about 200 million, and from 2022, China will enter an accelerated stage of aging process, and it is expected that by 2040, China's population aged 65 and above will account for more than 26% of the total population, and the continuous growth of the elderly population will also promote the rapid development of the silver economy. It is estimated that by 2035, the size of the silver economy will be 191 trillion yuan, accounting for 27 percent of total consumption8%。

In addition to the data, we can also feel the booming demand of the silver economy from the perception alone. The elderly in the new era have experienced decades of rapid development of Chinese society, and many of them have a high level of education and cognition, money and leisure, and can be regarded as one of the groups with the highest net worth and consumption potential in today's era.

Yun Fei herself believes that the market for middle-aged and elderly learning is very large, "Our generation of retired professionals, many of them are highly educated, have higher requirements in spiritual pursuit, have wider interests, and now the network is highly developed, and the content of attention and understanding is also very rich." After we retire on a large scale, we have good physical condition, plenty of time, a lot of spiritual pursuits, pensions and certain savings, it depends on whether the company can seize this opportunity to do something that meets our needs. ”

She currently likes to take courses in culture and art, and as she gets older, she predicts that she may pay more attention to health and wellness.

It is foreseeable that enterprises that seize this track will usher in huge new opportunities. As a leading learning company, Quantum Song has laid out the silver economy and made a forward-looking move, and their business basically covers all kinds of demands for lifelong learning for adults.

This approach has already paid off. Q2024 Q2 operating revenue was 86.9 billion yuan, an increase of 318%, the adjusted net profit was 93.96 million yuan, and the single-quarter revenue and adjusted net profit both hit a record high.

The supporting factor behind the performance is that in recent years, the overall growth of the learning market has been and the state has vigorously advocated lifelong learning. In addition, Quantum Song has carried out a diversified business layout for young people, middle-aged and elderly people, stepped on the market demand, and also enhanced the brand effect through content and services, attracting and firmly grasping users.

This generation of "new age", rational needs, health needs, emotional needs, spiritual needs, diversified needs will bring about consumption stratification, look deeper, consumption is more subdivided, "interest learning" is a huge branch of the subdivision. Starting from the "interest" field of satisfying the spiritual needs of middle age, based on the in-depth understanding of the household and the brand effect, the song of quantity continues to meet the learning and spiritual needs of middle age.

The diversified needs of the middle-aged and elderly are bigger, including "medical care, nursing, health, entertainment, housing", etc., and there is a huge imagination space behind each of these fields. Based on interest learning and a deep understanding of users, it is expected to become the first batch of commercial organizations that understand the material and spiritual needs of middle-aged and elderly people.

The financial report of the quantum song also mentioned that the company's cumulative number of registered households has exceeded 100 million, with such a large number of user scale, not only with the help of "interest learning" to pry open the silver economy trillion market, to find the second curve of performance growth, in the future, a large number of senior users with a wide age span, will also become the engine of the company's business development, cut into the "silver economy" other tracks will be a matter of course, pry open the silver economy trillion market, imagination space will be greater.

The middle-aged and elderly interest learning track is in the ascendant, and it is in the critical stage of seizing the market and occupying the minds of users. For businesses, the most effective strategy should be to act fast and have a good reputation. Next, whoever can occupy the market first will have the initiative in the battle for the "silver economy".

At the request of the interviewee, Yun Fei and Zhou Zhou are pseudonyms in the article.