Reuters
China`s rapidly aging population is fuelling a promising and fast-growing market for companies providing recreational classes and activities for the elderly middle class, from yoga to African drumming and smartphone photography.

The growth potential of the industry contrasts sharply with the decline of the after-school private tutoring sector following a government crackdown in 2021 aimed at boosting record low birth rates by lowering education costs.

"Education industries are transitioning to the silver economy," said Qiu Peilin, the Beijing head of Mama Sunset, an elderly learning business which has opened five centres in the Chinese capital since launching in April 2023.

Consulting firm Frost & Sullivan expects China`s senior learning market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 34% by 2027 to 120.9 billion yuan ($16.8 billion), up from 28 billion yuan in 2022.

It`s a numbers game.

Over the next decade, roughly 300 million Chinese will enter retirement - the equivalent of almost the entire US population. One in every two people aged over 65 in the Asia-Pacific region will live in China by 2040, Euromonitor estimates.

While China`s demographic crisis is threatening its industrial base, government finances and poverty alleviation efforts, some investors see the growing pool of elderly as a sure bet.

Mama Sunset, which offers 20 different classes to thousands of Chinese aged 50-plus, is in talks with domestic investors to expand to 200 franchised centres across the country in the next three years, when it wants to list on the Hong Kong exchange.

Women attend a smartphone photography class at Mama Sunset, a learning centre for middle-aged and senior people in Beijing, China January 17, 2024.
Women attend a smartphone photography class at Mama Sunset, a learning centre for middle-aged and senior people in Beijing, China January 17, 2024. |REUTERS

Nasdaq-listed Quantasing, the largest online elderly learning provider in China according to Frost & Sullivan, plans to hire more tai chi and traditional medicine tutors to add to existing classes ranging from memory training to video editing.

It also plans to leverage its customer base to sell products such as moxa sticks, used in traditional medicine, or Baijiu, a Chinese liquor.

Quantasing`s revenues grew 24.7% year-on-year for the final quarter of last year to $980.5 million yuan ($136.2 million), while its total registered users shot up 44.6% year-on-year to 112.4 million at the end of 2023.

"It`s a real sunrise industry," the firm`s CEO Matt Peng said.

China`s government is also getting involved, announcing in January tax incentives and financial support for products and services for the elderly. Premier Li Qiang pledged in March further efforts to develop "the silver economy," without elaborating.

The provincial government of Hebei provided the land and space for Mama Sunset`s Cangzhou branch as part of a poverty alleviation programme.