Foreigners new to China may find it amusing to see groups of old Chinese women dancing together in squares, parks or any open place, accompanied by garish music. Often there would also be unskilled learners on the skirts of the crowd, trying their best to imitate the experts.
Those learners have caught the notice of Chinese public dance video provider 99 Guangchangwu, called 99 Square Dance in English. The platform wants to provide them with various dance teaching videos, and recently it has landed USD five million in Series A financing.
Chinese tech blog 36Kr reported on Wednesday, that the investment was made by Ventech Capital.
The Beijing-based platform came online in January. Dance learners can watch a variety of teaching videos on its official site or on its app. The videos can be uploaded by both professional dancers and common users. Their team also go offline to provide dance training service in over 60 Chinese cities.
Its CEO Zhang Xiankun said they would come up with more products targeted at the public dancing crowd, including financial products, healthcare products, and artist management.
The public dancing crowd, made up of middle-aged and elderly people, is huge in China. 36Kr said there are about 20 million active dancers and 100 million dance lovers in China, 80% of whom are female.
(Top photo from pps.tv)