（IC photo / 图）
Meijim, who was once an "early education star", is now caught in the turmoil of closing stores in many places across the country. According to media reports, many of Mejim's stores in many cities across the country were suddenly closed, and it was difficult for parents to refund fees.
In fact, not only Mejim, but also early education institutions such as Nanada Ma and Gymboree have been in turmoil recently.
Once upon a time, the early education industry with a market of hundreds of billions was infinite, and famous early education institutions such as Mejim had a very rapid development momentum. And now how did the situation change? What is the future of the early education industry?
High-profile "100 billion market"
Education from the birth of a child to the pre-primary stage can be called early education, according to the characteristics of infants' physical and mental development and brain development, give them scientific, rich and appropriate information stimulation and training, can develop children's physical and mental potential, promote their all-round development.
Early education can be divided into two stages: 0-3 years old, infants and young children do not go to kindergarten, but early education can already be carried out; After the age of 3, children can officially enter kindergarten learning, in addition to the early education system in the school, early education institutions outside the school also play a supplementary role.
For a long time in the past, the concept of early education in China was not popular, and many parents did not realize the function of early education. After the 1990s, with the continuous development of China's economy and the continuous close exchange of ideas with foreign economies, foreign early education concepts began to affect Chinese parents, and a number of early education institutions came into being, but the industry is still in the embryonic stage.
In the second decade of the new century, the early education industry has truly ushered in rapid development. Wealthy Singaporeans pay more attention to the education of their children and are more willing to invest.
There are already many post-80s and post-90s parents who have become parents, and young people are more likely to accept some new educational concepts, and they pay more attention to children's early education than their parents, believing that this is the initial and most important but previously ignored "starting line" for children.
At the same time, foreign early education institutions represented by Mejim have entered the mainland in a big way, and the more mature and systematic operation models they represent have continuously spread from first- and second-tier cities to third- and fourth-tier cities.
According to the data of Zhiyan Consulting, since 2014, the number of investment events in the domestic early education service industry has increased, and the investment amount has increased significantly. The number of investment and financing events in 2014 was nearly 50, and in 2015 it exceeded 110, and from 2015 to 2018, there were more than 90 investment and financing events every year.
From 2012 to 2016, the investment amount of the early education industry increased year by year, exceeding 4 billion yuan in 2017, and soaring to 9.644 billion yuan in 2018.
According to the research report, the market size of the mainland early education industry has increased year by year from 2016 to 2020, and the market size will reach 327.6 billion yuan and 350 billion yuan in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Although with the decline in fertility, the number of newborns born every year is decreasing, because of the huge population base, the "100 billion cake" of the early education market is still optimistic about the outside world.
（IC photo / 图）
From the infinite scenery to the edge of the thunder
In the pre-epidemic era, the early education industry has been expanding: various institutions online and offline have their own talents; There are various subdivisions - English, mathematical thinking, big language, children's songs, picture books, young animation, etc., all of which form a special track.
In 2018, Mejim successfully landed on A-shares and became the "first stock of early education".
Mejim's 2018 financial report shows that the company's total revenue in 2018 was 265 million yuan, and the total profit was 60.49 million yuan; in 2019, the company's total revenue increased by 137.35% year-on-year to 630 million yuan, and the total profit increased by 302.54% to 243 million yuan; as of Q1 2019, Mejim centers reached 451.
The arrival of the epidemic has caused a huge impact on all offline industries, and Mejim is no exception. In 2020, Mejim's total revenue was 356 million yuan - compared with 2019, the total revenue in 2021 was 336 million yuan, and the total revenue in 2022 was 154 million yuan - only half of 2021, and the revenue in the first quarter of 2023 was only 29.54 million yuan.
The company's operating profit was even more defeated, with a total profit of -531 million yuan in 2020, -57.4551 million yuan in 2021 and -610 million yuan in 2022.
The slump in the early education industry will cause the risk of "thunder" because almost all early education institutions are in the form of prepaid consumption, that is, institutions sell school bags to parents, a lesson bag is often tens of thousands of yuan, and the time covered by the school package is as short as a few months or as long as several years.
Although in August 2018, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Regulating the Development of Off-campus Training Institutions", which clearly requires early education and other off-campus training institutions to collect tuition fees from the educated: "It is not allowed to charge fees for a one-time period of more than 3 months." ”
In fact, it is common for early education institutions to charge fees for a one-time period of more than 3 months, and it has even become an industry practice. Under the normal operation of the institution, the form of the course package will be more "favorable"; Once the operation of the institution is unsustainable, the offline institution is closed, the remaining courses purchased by parents have no place to attend, and it is difficult to refund if they want to refund, which is like a "thunderstorm".
It is true that the epidemic is an important reason for the difficulties encountered by many early education institutions, in fact, the crisis of many early education institutions has long been buried.
First, blind expansion and sharp increases in costs. Early education institutions are mostly offline education, generally rented in a prosperous shopping mall, the average area is about 200 square meters, the monthly rent cost and labor cost is very high, the monthly operating cost is often tens of thousands, if the customer renewal and new is not ideal, then to lose money.
In the pre-epidemic era, many early education institutions were eager to achieve quick results and expand too fast, and there were already signs of difficulties in operation, and the impact of the epidemic made the crisis completely erupt.
Secondly, due to the rapid development of the early education industry in previous years, many people want to get a piece of the pie and have opened early education institutions. Because the early education industry lacks standards and insufficient teachers, many practitioners do not even have a preschool teacher qualification certificate, and they are directly on the job under simple training, which also leads to the overall level of the early education industry is not high, and many parents lose trust in early education institutions.
Under the impact of the epidemic, many parents found that they did not attend early education classes, and their children actually grew up very well, and they couldn't help but reflect on whether the early education classes they reported before were paying IQ tax. Nowadays, many parents will search for relevant information on social media, and once the voice of "distrust" of early education institutions increases, parents' willingness to register will decrease.
Therefore, although the epidemic has ended, early education institutions have not ushered in the expected rapid recovery.
Only by standardizing development can there be a future
Early education is still a 100 billion market.
Although the fertility rate is declining, Chinese parents currently attach great importance to the education of their children; Under the "double reduction" policy, the early education industry has not been greatly affected, but the weakening of subject training has made many parents more willing to invest in their children in painting, physical fitness and other aspects, which are all areas that early education has always been involved in.
Today's early education industry is facing difficulties, which is just an opportunity for the industry to rest itself.
On the one hand, in the pre-epidemic era, although the early education industry developed rapidly, it was generally a state of barbaric growth: there was no standard, and there was a lack of standard. For example, mainland nurseries and kindergartens adopt a "dual-track" model, and 0-3 year old infant and toddler care services are separated from 3-6 years old child care and education, the former is managed by the health commission, and the latter is managed by the education department.
In terms of curriculum connection, at present, the mainland has clearer educational suggestions for the learning and development goals and safeguarding and education of 3~6-year-old children, while relatively speaking, the educational suggestions for infants and toddlers aged 0~3 are relatively lacking.
Although parents spend a lot of money to send their children to institutions, they can't actually judge whether the curriculum is reasonable, whether the teachers are qualified, and they don't know whether there is an effect.
As long as this "fuzzy" space exists, the criteria for superiority and inferiority are not clear, and the rules of survival of the fittest are difficult to establish. To establish industry norms, it is necessary not only for early education institutions to self-discipline, but also for education and other relevant departments to gather industry experts and issue relevant standards so that early education has rules to follow.
On the other hand, for the current prepaid consumption problem that is common in early education institutions, it is necessary to effectively strengthen the supervision of funds to avoid misappropriation of funds by early education institutions, which will then cause the risk of lightning explosion.
Early education institutions should be more cautious when expanding, and do not misappropriate consumers' money to do risky things. Only when the funds are safer, the industry is more orderly, and the trust of parents is established, can the early education industry really go far.
Editor-in-charge: Liu Yunshan