The huge child population is the foundation for the formation of the children's industry and also the drive for the development of the children’s industry. Public survey data shows that currently the number of children under the age of 12 in mainland China has reached 290 million while the number of adolescents under the age of 18 is approaching 400 million; adolescent consumption expenditure accounts for 25% of the entire household income and is climbing at an annual speed of 9%. The rapid development of the children's industry can be attributed to the massive market containing 250 million children aged from 0 to 14. At present, China has become the world’s second-largest consumer for products for babies and children, just behind the U.S. Following the implementation of the two-child policy, China’s children's industry is more likely to surpass RMB$2 trillion this year and the children’s industry definitely offers tremendous business opportunities.
Businesses focusing on the children’s market can drive household spending, which has prompted businesspeople to increase their investment in the industry. The children's industry is only a “trigger point” and what it drives is the huge household market. As children’s choices determine the household’s direction, the businesses with special features targeting the children's market can significantly drive consumer traffic. For business complex operators, it takes a period of about 3 to 5 years for a new shopping center to gain recognition from consumers after its opening. However, adding businesses aimed at children can shorten this period and “activate” other businesses in the shopping center. Children’s spending can bring strong consumption retention for shopping centers and boost adult spending in dining, entertainment, clothing and general merchandise.
The current children's theme park market can be described as the amalgamation of ice and fire. As far as “fire” is concerned, the children’s theme park market is now in the fast growth stage and both small and large enterprises have swarmed into the market. The fourth wave of the baby boom has arrived, but the children’s theme park industry has not seen the formation of a monopoly by the leading enterprises. The children’s theme parks, which can’t be replaced by e-commerce, have gradually been regarded by the mainstream commercial real estate developers as the new core business following supermarkets, cinemas, and fast fashion. These objective market factors are further facilitating the children's industry to grow in leaps and bounds
On the other hand, what is behind the prosperity of the children's theme park market is the difficulty of survival for enterprises in this specific industry. Although the return on investment for children’s theme parks is estimated at around 40% and the payback period is about 2.5 years, the operating period of most of the children's theme parks has been less than two years from 2008 to present. More than 40% of the children's theme parks in China have closed down, and the cause of all the closing down is capital chain rupture. Most of those amusement parks that have survived are running at a real loss.
In the future, IP-themed operation will be the primary trend in the industry and the demand for interactive content will increase. More new technologies will be incorporated and the industry will attach greater importance to offering a unique, one-of-a-kind experience. The industry will see cross-border development and diverse business types will be integrated to drive household spending. The industry will move towards the direction of creating super family entertainment centers and truly letting parents and children have fun together. Moreover, the children's indoor amusement parks will provide more children's education experience and the development of games and amusement equipment will integrate more parent-child education elements in order to give the new-generation of parents convincing reasons to let their children play at these amusement parks. Therefore, manufacturer-operator alliances will become an important propensity in the development of children’s amusement parks and bring diverse business cooperation models to traditional amusement parks.
Asu Su
Editor-in-Chief
※The article is published in the GTI Magazine Issue No. 162 in March 2018
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