According to Zhiyan Consulting, the dance market in China was about 36 billion yuan in 2019. They predict that by 2025, the it will reach 93 billion yuan, showing around 20% YoY growth. The main group of the population interested in dancing is the youth. It is estimated that around 262 million people in China were trained in dance in 2019. This includes online lessons, offline schools and dance classes at the fitness centers, students of Chinese universities with major in dancing art and schools for kids. As for the average cost, the annual cost of offline dancing classes is about RMB 2,400.
TV-dance show contributed to the popularity of dancing in China
The popularity of dancing in China is associated with the famous street dance show Hot Blood Dance Crew. The purpose of the program is to assemble the perfect dance team. The contestants present to the audience modern choreography and various street dance techniques. The judges select outstanding dancers and idols in multiple rounds to form one dance team. The new dance troupe, selected at the end of the competition, will compete with other popular dance teams in China for one year to win the title of dance idol.
This show brought together best Chinese choreographers and outstanding dancers from many of China’s leading street dance labels.
Hot Blood Dance Crew became a hit in China. The show’s finale received over 1.8 billion views. Topics related to the show were frequently discussed on Chinese social media. For example, Hot Blood Dance Crew has been mentioned on Weibo around 40 million views. In addition, being one of the most watched and talked about programs of 2018 in China, and it has broken advertising revenue records in the online entertainment industry.
Dance apps are the next step in the dance market in China
Dance apps in China offer online classes for people of all ages. These apps provide dance lovers with a large selection of instructional videos. Users can choose from a variety of styles including square dance, modern dance, jazz dance, cha-cha dance, hip hop and more. Some apps even provide training in traditional Chinese dance, including Jiangnan dance training and Jingmen traditional dance. Users can watch their dance videos and learn at any time without spending money on hiring a coach and dance school.
Popular dance apps in China
China Dance Network – the leader among dance apps in China
China Dance Network (chinadance.cn) is one of the most popular apps on the dance market in China, founded in 2004 with the aim of providing an online platform for teaching dance lovers. It currently offers several features such as dance news, dance photos, dance tutorials, dance videos, and dance forums. With 600,000 members and over 300,000 daily visits, it is currently the largest dance arts websites in China.
This app also allows users to discuss dance topics in the forum, get information about new styles, participate in dance discussions and chat with dancers all over the country online.
Meipai 美拍 targeting youth on the dance market in China
Meipai is a popular software for young people that has live streaming and short video functions. After launching in May 2014, it won the App Store Free Apps List for 24 consecutive days and became the first non-gaming app in the App Store to do so.
In 2018 Meipai officially launched China’s first online dance learning function. Users can watch and learn different dance styles for free. The goal is to make dance learning easier for all users and to encourage users to create content.
On the first day of launching, users used Meipai’s “follow the dance” feature over 200,000 times. Within 3 days of launching this feature, people had posted over 80 million dance videos. Many users described this feature as practical and fun. For example, Huang Xiao, founder of the famous Hello Dance Studio, said that Meipai makes dance accessible to everyone.
Currently, Meipai “Dance Follower” has a total of 65 audio options to choose from, covering various types of dance such as K-pop dance, street dance, ethnic dance, Internet pop dance, and other modern trends.
According to the latest data, more than half of Meipai users live in the first and second tier cities, and women make up 81% of the total number of users. These are mainly Chinese white collars and women of fashion.
Jump 跳吧 – offering wide range of modern dance styles
Jump is a free online dance training app. This platform contains instructional videos to teach people of all ages to dance.
The purpose of this app is to lower the threshold for dancing and to promote the development and spread of dance culture. This app was one of the first in China to successfully integrate dance and online learning. In addition to online dance classes, Jump also has an information sharing community specially created for dance lovers. Users can discuss dance classes online and share their experiences. Jump offers users instructional videos from all over the world, and they can also share their own dance videos.
Users can start the dance journey with Jump even if at the beginner level. The application is free and provides training in contemporary, hip-hop and jazz dance.
The app has an exclusive segmented teaching mode and the mirror inversion function of the instructional video to make it easy to learn dance with the teacher on video.
JAMYO -uniting top dance teachers
JAMYO Dance App 酱游舞蹈 is an educational app for dance classes in China. This application has a professional online learning system and aims to provide users with a quality dance learning experience. You can choose free courses or purchase professional dance courses.
JAMYO Dance, a unique and innovative online dance training system, allows you to start your dance training from any level. A team of teachers made up of professional dancers offers an innovative online dance education system. The app has lessons for different levels: beginner, intermediate and professional. What makes this app stand out, is that the instructors are some of the best dancers in China. For example, this app has teachers from leading dance groups in China like STO, SPEED, TOUCH, IDEG.
Tangdou 糖豆: The Chinese app targeting the silver generation on the dance market in China
Tangdou is the place where 100 million middle age and elderly exercise and dancing enthusiasts gather. Users can choose from instructional videos such as square dance, aerobics and yoga. 5 million handpicked square dance video tutorials are free to download and learn. Famous quadrille teachers from all over the country demonstrate the teaching, allowing users to learn a square dance in 5 minutes.
The app became so popular that tech giant Tencent decided to become an investor in Tangdou. Tangdou used WeChat to engage users. It created a program that allows you to quickly launch Tangdou right in WeChat. WeChat considers users over 55 to be the fastest growing group, so this was a successful move by Tangdou to promote their app on WeChat. As the mobile Internet in China is rapidly expanding to reach more users, the markets for services for middle-aged and older users are becoming a hot topic.
Tangdou started offering online video dance lessons in 2016. It originally targeted middle age and elderly women but has evolved over time into a universal app that caters to the news and networking needs of older users. The app’s content now covers a wide variety of topics, from fashion, food and health to skin care.
At the moment, the application has about 200 million users in China. More than 4,000 offline events are held monthly, attracting over 500,000 visitors, and 400,000 users watch videos and articles on the Tangdou app each month and spend an average of 33 minutes every day on it. The searches for the app hit its peak during the lockdown in China in February-March 2020, when people had to stay at home.
This level of user loyalty makes Tangdou an ideal place for advertising, which is one of the company’s main sources of income, as there is no fee for users. Currently Tangdou plans to create an e-commerce site and offer offline dance classes and tours for dance enthusiasts.
Key takeaways of the digitalization of China’s dance market
- Dance market in China is growing thanks to the influence of popular street dance shows, which attract young people.
- The tradition of square dances has existed in China for a long time, so online applications that teach these dances have a good chance to succeed.
- Dance apps in China have become an alternative to dance schools during the pandemic. Many Chinese users realized all the convenience and began to use them more often.
Currently the dance education industry in China is experiencing some problems such as lack of professional teachers and poor management. The growing popularity of dance apps in China can be the solution for this industry and help to engage more people to take part in dancing activities.
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