Market status and consumption analysis of China's fitness industry in 2021

                                   

As more and more people pay attention to their own health, the global fitness industry has developed rapidly in recent years. Large fitness brands like 24 Hour Fitness and Anytime Fitness have appeared in the United States, among which Anytime Fitness has more than 3,500 gyms in 30 countries around the world , Xponential Fitness(XFO.US) and F45 Training(FXLV.US) launched in the early years of 2020, each with a market cap of over $1 billion. With the growth of China's economy and the improvement of consumption level, more and more people begin to pay attention to fitness ,the following content mainly analyzes the status of China's fitness industry and consumption.

Market size: the market size of the fitness industry continues to grow, and the membership penetration rate needs to be improved

The market size of China's fitness industry has continued to grow in recent years, and it is expected that the market size will continue to grow in 2021 and reach 377.1 billion yuan($58B). There are 70.29 million gym members in China in 2020 , with a penetration rate of 4.87%, while the penetration rate of American gym members is 19.0%, which means that China's gym industry has great potential for development.

User survey: Consumers' evaluation of gyms is generally good, and the quality of group classes needs to be improved

Nearly half of consumers in China have annual card spending between 1000-3000 yuan($154-462), and the proportion of respondents with annual card spending of less than 1,000 yuan ($154) and more than 5000 yuan($700) accounted for 10.0% and 18.8% respectively. Chinese gym consumers have a good overall evaluation of gyms, and the rate of dissatisfaction with gyms is only 6.5%. Among them, the overall rating of fitness coaches is relatively high. However, currently more than 30% of respondents are still dissatisfied with fitness group classes , the quality of group lessons still needs to be improved.

Industry Trends: The trend of small and professional gyms is obvious

On the surface, the trend of small and specialized gyms is obvious. The real advantage of this kind of gym lies in that it can attract people who really love this sport in a certain segment of the sports field, and it can also get more sense of community belonging. There are more gyms in the segment of the fitness field, such as yoga. It is estimated that by 2025, China's basic-stage physical fitness population may grow to about 325-350 million, and it may account for 65%-70% of China's overall physical fitness population.

The development stages of the global gym market

 Before the COVID-19 global epidemic in 2020, the gym industry developed rapidly under a variety of factors. In 2019, the global gym revenue was 96.7 billion U.S. dollars, with over 184 million members and 210,000 gyms . However, the epidemic has brought a certain degree of challenges to the global gym industry. In addition, the current development of the global gym industry is uneven. In 2020, the penetration rate of the fitness population in the United States will reach 19.0%, and the United Kingdom, Germany, and France will reach 15.6%, 14.0%, and 9.2% respectively, While China’s is only 4.9%.

The Development Status of American Gym Industry

Before the impact of the coronavirus, the scale of development of the gym industry in the United States was ahead of the scale of the gym industry in other countries. In 2019, there were approximately 62.4 million gym members in the United States, and the industry market reached 34 billion U.S. dollars, with a market share exceeding one third of the global gym industry market share.

Market size of China's gym industry

The market size of China's fitness industry has continued to grow in recent years. In 2020, the market size will reach 336.2 billion yuan($51.7B). It is expected that the market size will continue to grow and reach 377.1 billion yuan($519B) in 2021.

The development potential of China's gym industry: second-tier cities have gradually become the main force

The penetration rate of gym members in the four first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen has basically reached more than 10%, which has reached or approached the penetration rate of developed countries, while the overall penetration rate of China is only about 5%. As people's income continues to increase, it is expected that fitness habits are expanding from first-tier cities to second-tier and lower-tier cities, and the market potential in second-tier and lower-tier cities is great in the future.

Survey on Chinese gym Consumers’ preference for fitness duration in 2021

More than half of Chinese consumers spend 1 to 2 hours in exercise. 12.1% of female bodybuilders spend more than 3 hours in a single exercise, compared with only 2.6% of men. The average fitness time of Chinese fitness consumers is mostly within 2 hours, among which female fitness consumers choose longer exercise time than men. Among them, Chinese respondents aged 22-30 have the strongest desire to go to the gym in the future, accounting for 56.7%.

Survey of factors considered by Chinese consumers when choosing a gym in 2021

The top three factors considered by Chinese fitness respondents in 2021 when choosing a gym are the environment, facilities, and location. From the analysis of the preferences of different income groups on the consideration factors of the gym, respondents with an average monthly income of more than 10,000 yuan（$1500） pay more attention to the quality of group courses, while respondents with an average monthly income of less than 10,000 yuan($1500) pay more attention to fitness Facilities, which reflect the different preferences of different income groups for fitness methods, gyms can also establish different brand positioning.

                                         

China's gym industry development trend 1: move into vertical segments

After the gym industry has experienced considerable development, some professional studios serving a certain vertical subdivision area slowly began to appear. Such as Supermonkey, JUSTIN&JULIE, Z&B, etc. are intensive cultivation in the field of group classes, SUNSHINE YOGA is constantly working hard in the direction of yoga training services, and WEGYMER is dedicated to the field of personal trainer fitness, it is clear that many enterprises are constantly trying to meet the different needs of consumers.

Smaller gyms, which tend to be more specialized, have lower operating costs, fewer employees, and are easier to run than larger gyms. The real advantage of these gyms is that they attract people who are really passionate about a particular sport.

China's gym industry development trend 2: Industry standardization

In terms of standardization construction in sports and fitness-related fields, the State Administration of Market Supervision and the General Administration of Sports jointly issued the "Guidelines for the Construction of Sports Standard System (2018-2020)", which carried out a phased plan for the construction of a standard system in the field of sports in China. At the same time, a total of 75 national standards related to sports and fitness were approved and issued, covering various aspects such as the opening conditions and technical requirements of stadiums, fitness equipment, sports goods, management of stadiums and fitness venues, and star ratings for gymnasiums, providing for sports and national fitness technical support.

According to data released by the China Consumers Association, prepaid consumption is a hot spot for complaints, and there are more complaints about prepaid consumption in the fitness industry. Consumers often encounter the problem of "membership fees are difficult to refund". In this regard, Beijing has established the first prepaid supervision platform, if consumers encounter difficulties in refunding prepaid fees, they can file complaints and legal proceedings to protect their legitimate rights and interests.

China's gym industry development trend 3: Coordinated development of online and offline models

The main reason many consumers choose gyms is that gyms are close to home or company, and then they consider price, course content, and personal training; because Going to the gym requires clothes, toiletries, etc., which can be a resistance to going to the gym. At home, you only need to click on the video to practice directly, so online fitness has greatly reduced the difficulty for members to participate in fitness, and it has gained a lot of supporters. Therefore, there are already several companies in China with valuations of about US$2 billion like Keep and there are also many offline fitness companies with a certain scale.

There is not much conflict between online fitness and offline fitness, and there may be a combination of the two in the future， According to the long-term plan in China's “Healthy China 2030 Planning Outline” and the data released by the State Sports General Administration, it is estimated that by 2025, China's basic physical fitness population may grow to about 325-350 million，in the overall physical fitness population of the country, it may reach 65%-70%，And in the next few years, the online fitness models are likely to grow even more.