A team of middle-aged and senior dancers under Tangdou Square Dance's offline entertainment and communication platform Tangdou Home pose for a photo at a park in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui province, in October 2018. （Photo provided to China Daily）
Statistics from mobile app tracker Analysys Qianfan shows that the Tangdou app had gained more than 8 million active users by November 2018, up by 1.6 percent on the previous month.
Notably, the data shows only 10 percent of Tangdou app's users are from super first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Users from first-tier, second-tier and third-tier cities account for 31 percent, 22 percent and 25 percent respectively.
"Middle-aged and elderly people living in big cities usually have abundant public services to enjoy, such as going to a community colleges to socialize and learn some musical instruments. While those living in small and medium-sized cities really need entertainment services," Zhang noted.
Seeing the growing trend of middle-aged and elderly people embracing WeChat's mini programs for entertainment search, Tangdou has unveiled its own mini programs to reach more senior users, especially those who don't usually download mobile apps.
It also offers services via smart televisions to cover more scenarios in their daily life.
So far, Tangdou claims it has attained more than 200 million middle-aged and elderly users across all channels, of which more than half are aged above 40. Tangdou has gained more than $25 million investment.
"The key challenges for the evolving square dancing sector are ensuring top quality of services and the ability to scale up," Xue Yongfeng, a senior analyst at Beijing-based consultancy Analysys, told China Daily.
Now, Tangdou wants to expand into far more offline scenarios to cater to seniors' increasingly growing social needs.
"With vast improvements in material conditions, now the aged need a colorful spiritual life both online and offline," Zhang added.
The company has established its own offline entertainment and communication platform Tangdou Home, which has hosted more than 5,000 activities involving millions of dance lovers across the country.
Most of the firm's revenue now comes from advertising. And more revenue is expected from the fees collected from users of the streaming app, who buy gifts and products while watching online content, as well as more paid contents and services.
