I first met Li Jinghui at Wangjing SOHO, where his company is located. There are a large number of start-up companies here. Entrepreneurship and financing are fashionable topics here. Not long ago, Youmei, a camp education brand he founded, received a new round of financing.
On February 18, 2019, Youmei announced that it has obtained a new round of financing from Wuyuan Capital, Rongzheng Capital and other institutions. This is the third investment it has received since its establishment. Founded in 2010, this camp education company has developed quite smoothly since 2016, and has almost maintained the rhythm of getting an investment every year.
In fact, this is also the epitome of the entire domestic camp education market. Since 2016, this relatively “unpopular” segment has suddenly become “hot”.
“Smell” to get the first chance
If classroom education is education under the light, then camp education is education under the sun.
What camp education advocates is to release children into nature and experience a collective outdoor life. Today, camp education originated in the United States has gradually gained a group of fans in China, who call it ” a classroom without walls “.
Li Jinghui is one of them. In his opinion, camp education is a powerful supplement to quality education . “Children should not only learn in front of the blackboard in the classroom, but also go outdoors and learn in the sun.”
Counting, he has been immersed in the camp education industry for more than eight years, and he is considered a veteran. After all, in China, more than 70% of camp education institutions have existed for less than 5 years, and Youmei Camp Education was established in 2010.
As an “exotic product”, camp education has not existed in China for a long time, so most of the practitioners come from education, tourism and other related fields. Li Jinghui also changed careers halfway, but he was in the electronics company Konka Group before. Serving is a far cry from camp education.
Making such a big transformation is purely accidental. At the end of 2010, when he was chatting with his American friends Marco and Mike about their children’s summer vacation life, he accidentally talked about American camp education. From friends, Li Jinghui learned that American children often participate in some camp activities. In an environment completely different from schools, they have group board and lodging, play games, and participate in outdoor sports such as hiking, rock climbing, and rafting. During this process, there will be coaches to guide and accompany the children to exercise the children’s independent living ability, hands-on ability, social ability, etc.
This was the first time he heard about camp education, and he felt very fresh. Looking at the photos sent by his friends, he seemed to have discovered a new continent. “Why not send Chinese children to the United States to participate in American-style summer camps?” He suddenly had such an idea, vaguely thinking that it was a good business opportunity, “China does not have this thing, maybe it is an opportunity.”
After Marco and Mike heard about this idea, they thought they could try it. They had often participated in camp activities when they were young, and they were very familiar with it. They had also worked as teachers and counselors, and they had experience in taking care of children and resources for teachers and students. The most important thing is that the identity of Americans provides them with innate convenience for finding cooperative camps in the United States.
The one from the right in the picture is Mike
Time waits for no one, so the three of them registered the company, which was the prototype of Youmei. But at this time, Li Jinghui has not resigned from Konka, and he is playing the role of “investor” in Youmeizhong.
Listening to Li Jinghui’s narration of this “old story”, one can’t help but think of the past when Ma Yun founded the China Yellow Pages. At the beginning of 1995, Ma Yun went to the United States by chance and came into contact with the Internet for the first time. He felt that this thing had great potential, so after returning to China, he registered and established China Yellow Pages with his wife and friend He Yibing, with the main business of publishing corporate information. This is also the first commercial information release website in China.
Both Li Jinghui and Ma Yun took advantage of the opportunity of information asymmetry between China and the United States, and their subsequent encounters were quite similar. When Ma Yun sells the Chinese Yellow Pages to enterprises, he often has to go to great lengths to explain what the Internet is and what the Chinese Yellow Pages are. Li Jinghui also encountered the same problem at the beginning. Let me first introduce what the American American camp is. “Youmei took on the role of a market pioneer and interpreter at that time.” Li Jinghui said with a smile.
According to Li Jinghui’s recollection, at that time, some people in China organized Chinese children to go to the United States, but most of them visited Harvard and other universities, or went to Disney to play, and few went to camp activities. Most people did not know what American camps were for.
This is how the Youmei Camp started, and at this time there are still 6 years before the arrival of the industry.
The Wind Rises 2016
2016 is a particularly important year for the U.S. camp and the entire camp education industry.
In this year, Li Jinghui resigned from Konka and became a “full-time” entrepreneur. The reason for changing from “part-time” to “full-time” is that he felt that he was too busy, because in 2016, Youmei made a major strategic decision-moving the American-style camp to China.
If we just found opportunities to make money before, this time it can be regarded as “all in” camp education.
In the past 6 years, Youmei has established cooperation with more than 40 American camps and 15 Canadian camps, and sent more than 2,000 Chinese children to the United States, accumulating a lot of experience. After figuring out the way, they began to plan to introduce American-style camps to China and build their own camps in China. Compared with going to the United States, domestic camps have more advantages in terms of distance, time, and cost.
Youmei’s first domestic camp landed in Qiandao Lake, inheriting the model of the high-end traditional camp of Lenix in the United States. According to public information, Lenix High-end Traditional Camp was established in 1918 and has a history of 100 years. The camp is located in Massachusetts, only an hour’s drive from the cultural city of Boston. In the past 100 years, Lenix’s hardware facilities and event settings are among the best in the United States. Therefore, it is the first choice camp for children of educated families from prestigious schools such as Harvard University and MIT in the Boston area.
Youmei Qiandao Lake Camp
In terms of activity settings, the Qiandao Lake Camp adopts a 4+1+1 activity mode, four regular activities of sports, adventure activities, water sports, and art experience + American-style special activities (American Party, Roman War, Music MV Night etc.) + destination special activities. Li Jinghui said that 80% of the standard American courses + 20% of the camp special courses can not only let the campers experience the essence of the American camp, but also understand the culture with Chinese characteristics.
According to the official website of Youmei Camp, the one-week summer camp fee of Qiandao Lake Camp is 9,800 yuan, and the biweekly price is 19,800 yuan. It costs nearly 10,000 yuan a week, which is still unaffordable for families with ordinary income, so most of Youmei’s customers are “high net worth” people. Li Jinghui has a portrait of Youmei’s customer group: they have a good educational background, a good economic foundation, a clear direction for their children’s future development, and experience in living or traveling abroad.
What can kids learn from spending so much money on a week of summer camp? This is a question in the hearts of many parents, and it is also a question that Li Jinghui often needs to answer. He believes that knowledge-based learning is very simple, and you can learn it immediately with Baidu and Google, but quality education must be experiential, and the camp provides this kind of environment. “Camp education can cultivate children’s leadership, teamwork, The adventurous spirit and the spirit of exploration, these are learned through subtle influences, and will affect children for life.”
In addition to Li Jinghui’s resignation from Konka and starting a “full-time” business, Qiandaohu Camp started to operate, and another important event happened in Youmei Camp in 2016-financing. In this year, Youmei Camp received millions of angel round financing. This is the first time Youmei has received financing since its establishment 6 years ago. Since then, Youmei has maintained an average annual rhythm of obtaining one financing.
In 2016, for the entire camp education industry, another important event happened – in December 2016, “Opinions on Promoting Study Tours for Primary and Secondary School Students” was issued . The “Opinions” propose that it is necessary to strengthen the construction of research travel bases, standardize the management of research travel, and create a number of exemplary research travel boutique routes. As an important research and travel base, the camp has begun to be valued by more and more people, and the development of the camp education industry has entered the fast lane.
Also entering the fast lane is Youmei. Compared with the silence before 2016, Youmei has been active since 2016. In 2016, the Qiandao Lake camp began to operate, in 2017 the Shanghai camp began to operate, in 2018 the Beijing camp began to operate, and on July 14, 2019, the Yunnan camp will also officially open.
Looking at it now, 2016 is a watershed year for Youmei.
problem
From the perspective of financing and camp construction, the development of Youmei can be called smooth, but this does not mean that there are no problems.
Camp site selection is a headache. From the current location selection of the four self-operated camps, it can be seen that Beijing and Shanghai are first-tier cities, and Qiandao Lake and Yunnan are tourist destinations with beautiful scenery. Li Jinghui said that this is not accidental. One is a source of tourists with high consumption levels and dense consumer groups, and the other is a destination with beautiful scenery and distinctive culture .
But following this logic, it is easy to find a suitable city, but it is not so easy to choose a suitable land from the city. “It is still difficult to find a suitable site. A good environment cannot be built due to the restrictions of various construction indicators. A well-built environment may not be so good. It is not easy to find a suitable site and partners.” Although it is difficult to find, but It can’t be done at all. ” Camp education requires land if there is camp. Camp is soft. If there is no land and only soft activities, it is ethereal, and the culture cannot be passed on for a long time. ” Li Jinghui said.
In addition to the difficulty of finding a venue, the design of the camp course is also a problem. At present, the curriculum design of many camp educational institutions lacks innovative ideas. It simply combines rafting, rock climbing, and evening parties. It seems to be rich in content, but it does not allow children to learn much. At present, the camp curriculum of Youmei is not very different from the curriculum of other camp educational institutions in terms of setting. How to reflect the difference is still a problem that needs continuous thinking.
The camp is the watch, and the campers and mentors are the soul . The lack of excellent camp instructors is also a major problem facing the industry. In Li Jinghui’s view, compared with foreign camp instructors, domestic camp instructors still have some gaps in professionalism. For example, several generations of American instructors’ families have participated in Camp activities, I grew up in a camp, and I have a camp culture in my blood.
Regarding the training of camp instructors, Li Jinghui believes that more activities should be done to exercise, and the training of training institutions is not of great significance. ” Anyone can talk about theory, but the key is practice .”
“Low frequency” is also a problem faced by many camp educational institutions, including Youmei. The unit price of camp education courses is relatively high, and it is very difficult to achieve profitability only by relying on the three-month summer camp every year. However, at present, domestic camp education institutions still focus on summer camps.
Youmei’s current main revenue also comes from summer camps. More than 80% of its 30 million revenue in 2018 came from summer camps. For this problem, Youmei adopts the method of “multi-camp, multi-time, multi-project” operation. On the basis of the summer camp, the Youmei Camp has added winter camps, semester camps, and weekend camps, hoping to fill up more free time.
notes
Camp education has a history of 100 years in the world, and the market penetration rate in Japan is as high as 90%. In the United States, 10 million children participate in camp activities every year. China’s camp education market is still in the incubation period, and players from all walks of life are uneven, but the trend has come.
Among the many competitors, what is the core competitiveness of Youmei? Li Jinghui’s answer is: internationalization .
Specifically, the internationalization he mentioned can be divided into six points, namely, the internationalization of the camp environment, the internationalization of camp facilities, the internationalization of courses, the internationalization of instructors, the internationalization of campers, and the internationalization of languages . Youmei has been closely connected with the American camp from the very beginning, which is also the most distinctive label on him.
But internationalization means high prices. In the immature Chinese market, how many families are willing to pay nearly 10,000 yuan for a week-long summer camp? Whether Youmei can achieve profitability while adhering to high international standards is still unclear to the outside world. In an interview with reporters, Li Jinghui only disclosed last year’s revenue, and he was unwilling to disclose the profitability.
But it is undeniable that camp education has great possibilities.
