New | Singing a different tune: China’s KTV firms change tack to lure back young customers

The microphones in many traditional karaoke bars across China have fallen silent. For years, such bars had flourished in nearly every town and city in the country. People would pack the smoke-filled rooms, belting out songs to their audience as lyrics appeared on a television screen in front of them. But times are changing – and karaoke as a leisure activity is evolving as people embrace the internet and prefer to pass their time online these days. Few people visit Party World Ö Karaoke in Shanghai’s Xujiahui Ö area now, although it was once the most popular hangout for young people. “On workdays, most of the rooms are empty,” said staff worker Li Wen, who was killing time on his smartphone. A leader in China’s karaoke, or KTV, business a decade ago, Party World has seen its number of stores on the mainland shrink from more than a dozen during its peak in 2008 to only five now. Super Star, another big KTV brand under real estate giant Wanda Group, closed all its mainland stores a month ago. The decade-old Asian pastime of singing along to songs on a television screen in a room without windows is dying out as people embrace more diverse recreational activities and the younger generation turns to more interactive singing online. “We see fewer students and young office workers visiting. They made the bulk of our customers in the past,” Li said. Bored with the same old services and lured by the novelty of singing apps on mobile devices, the demand for karaoke from youngsters is falling fast, said Yan Qiupu, senior vice-president of My Song KTV. The company, which was set up in 2009, last year merged with China’s most popular singing app Changba to pursue new growth. “The years from 2004 to 2010 were the golden period of KTVs in China. My Song benefited from the last days of this golden period [but by] 2014, many traditional brands were on the verge of collapse [as the mobile internet burgeoned],” Yan said. Karaoke has seen many changes since the activity gained popularity on the mainland after being imported from Taiwan and Japan in the early 1990s. Songs, that had to be selected from an electronic screen, can now be ordered through the mobile phone; wired microphones have also been changed to wireless ones. Other efforts to draw customers include KTV businesses increasing their number of rooms – some with luxurious décor – and designing individual rooms based on different themes, such as a Hello Kitty room to attract young women. “But the key experience has never changed,” Yan said, referring to the singing along to music with lyrics displayed on a screen. Yan’s company, now known as Changba My Song, is now developing community-based smaller-scale karaoke sessions to serve Changba’s online users with more interactive functions. “The market today is truly grim … We hope to redefine the product with our internet mindset,” said Changba founder Chen Hua. The app Changba was launched in 2012 and boasts 300 million users. Unlike other traditional karaoke bars, the business does not feature a lobby and buffet area. Its stores, located in residential communities, often have as few as 25 rooms and charge as little as 30 yuan (HK$36) an hour on average. Customers are encouraged to share their songs online via the app and online listeners may order drinks for them if they enjoy their singing. Rankings based on the number of likes and dislikes render the singing a more social activity than classic karaoke. Estimating China’s karaoke market value at several hundred billion yuan, Chen said he expected a good harvest in such a large market as long as he does his business “not too badly”. “The traditional way has fallen behind the times, but this does not rule out the possibility that a new way can lead our times,” said Chen, who founded travel website Kuxun.cn in 2006 and led e-commerce giant Alibaba Group’s search engine operations between 2009 and 2011. “We want to create a new experience for customers and improve our staff’s work efficiency through innovation, in terms of products and services, management and fund raising, such as crowd funding.” With seven stores presently available for online booking – five in Beijing and two in Hebei province – Changba My Song aims to have a few dozen stores in operation by the end of the year and about 100 next year, mostly in northern China. Chen’s ambition is to have 2,000 stores in five years, where, except for cleaners, everything can be done through customers’ mobile devices, including booking rooms, ordering food and paying bills. Each of the company’s stores raked in several hundred thousand yuan in profits in their first month, he said. Shanghai Maritime University student Yao Lingzi said young Chinese would continue to enjoy karaoke. “It is human nature to sing when we are happy, with or without musical equipment. This need will not change as time passes. It is just that our need for the singing experience has changed,” she said.

.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}New | Singing a different tune: China’s KTV firms change tack to lure back young customers

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}One company lets people to share their renditions online and have listeners order drinks for them, as traditional karaoke loses appeal with internet-savvy generation

New | Singing a different tune: China’s KTV firms change tack to lure back young customers

One company lets people to share their renditions online and have listeners order drinks for them, as traditional karaoke loses appeal with internet-savvy generation