Every reporter: Huang Hai Every editor: Yang Xia
"5km itself is a large institution. Even teachers didn't expect that such a problem would happen."
On the evening of June 13, a large number of netizens who claimed to be teachers, consultants, and members posted on social media The platform issued an article stating that many 5km dance studio stores have "closed their doors and left." That night, “5km” related terms topped Weibo’s hot searches.
Picture source: Weibo screenshot
5km Dance Studio (hereinafter referred to as "5km") is well-known in the industry. In the eyes of many industry insiders, 5km can be said to be the chain dance studio with the highest level of teachers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.
According to the official WeChat account of "5km Dance Studio", as of June 1 this year, 5km has opened more than 30 stores in shopping malls in major mainstream business districts in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, providing different dance types, different styles and different levels of difficulty. Enrich the curriculum. All 5km stores conduct about 10,500 regular classes every month, and the platform has about 670 teachers every month.
One moment and another, now, Star Dance Studio is in trouble, leaving thousands of members and more than 10 million yuan in membership fees to be solved.
html On June 14, a reporter from "Daily Economic News" contacted 5km Company and its founder through various channels, but the calls were not connected. On the afternoon of June 14, reporters saw at the 5km headquarters that the company was empty and the internal office equipment had almost been evacuated. A termination and clearance statement in the house showed that 5km had been in rent arrears for nearly a month. A statement of termination of contract on the desktop of
5km headquarters. Picture source: Photographed by Huang Hai, a reporter from the Daily News
Sudden store closure
html On the evening of June 13, Han Qing (pseudonym) set out for the 5km store on Changshou Road in Shanghai. According to the original plan, tonight she will learn to dance from the Korean girl group Girls' Generation together with dozens of students. Han Qing is 24 years old and a kpop (Korean Wave) enthusiast. He started taking classes at 5km around 2022 and has spent nearly 10,000 yuan in total. In her impression, since she applied for the card, 5km’s teaching staff and student atmosphere have always been good.5km once introduced in the official public account that each store insists on using high-cost hardware facilities such as stage-level speakers, soft spotlights, Sony series SLRs, etc. that are relatively high-cost in the industry. According to the memories of many students, generally speaking, every class has professionals to help record the entire class video.
Everything came to an abrupt end on the evening of June 13th. At 8 o'clock that night, Han Qing came to the store and found that the employees and course consultants who were supposed to work in the store had "disappeared." Han Qing told the reporter of "Daily Economic News", "On that day, there were only venues and speakers in the store. Under such circumstances, the teacher decided to teach all the students. Our conditions are pretty good, and some stores even have speakers. There are no air conditioners..."
html At noon on June 14, Han Qing posted a video on Douyin with the text: "Yesterday was the last class. There were no staff present. The teacher held up his mobile phone and shouted slogans. I was very sad while filming..." In less than a day, the number of likes on this video has exceeded 10,000.Han Qing couldn’t figure out why 5km closed suddenly. "Generally speaking, if other dance studios are unable to open, they may experience deteriorating performance such as fewer students, less class schedules, fewer teachers, etc., but there is no such thing at 5km. There are always a lot of people applying for cards..."
Han Qing's The encounter is not unique. Also caught off guard were the employees at 5km.
"As the situation has developed now, I am still confused, at a loss, and on the verge of crying. I was still working conscientiously in the morning, but the news exploded in the afternoon, and then there was news of a thunderstorm in the company." Lin Yu ( (pseudonym) is a course consultant at 5km. He has worked at 5km for four and a half years and is responsible for daily course purchase-related matters for students. At noon on June 13, news came one after another that the 5km store was closing, and her mobile phone began to be "bombarded" with messages.
Due to too much news, at 11 o'clock that night, Lin Yu publicly posted a letter of apology to students on WeChat Moments: "I am very grateful to everyone for their continued support and trust in me, but I was kept in the dark by the company. I've betrayed everyone's trust in me, and I'm deeply sorry!" In this post, Lin Yu also revealed that the company's salary for May has not been paid, and social security has only been paid until February.
5km’s operating problems may have already surfaced.
In early June, the equity of many companies under the founder's name changed
Counting the three years since 5km, Luo Zhen has been dancing pop dance for 9 years. In Luo Zhen’s words, he witnessed the rise and decline of 5km. In his view, the turning point of the 5km business will be at the end of 2023. There are two main reasons. One is the loss of teachers. Because a group of well-known dance teachers left or reduced their class hours, Luo Zhen reduced the frequency of classes from four times a week. It is once or twice a week; the second is the reduction in members’ income caused by making appointments and skipping classes.
According to Luo Zhen, in the past few years, the business of booking courses on third-party platforms has been rampant. You can often book a course with an original price of 70 to 80 yuan for about 40 yuan. In order to reduce losses caused by contract booking and free lessons, 5km once used a facial recognition system, but in the end the facial recognition system in some stores was "deactivated for unknown reasons."
Luo Zhen’s statement has been partially confirmed. On June 1 this year, 5km released an all-member letter on its official account. The letter bluntly stated that due to the impact of the general environment, 5km, whose business has always been stable, was under pressure from performance.
At that time, 5km stated that it would focus on Shanghai and make structural adjustments to the company from several dimensions: first, withdrawing from high-rent luxury shopping malls and not taking performance as the only indicator; second, unreasonable layout and conditions Bad shopping malls will withdraw their leases; thirdly, the reduction of unnecessary costs will greatly increase the richness of courses for stores that are hard hit by agency contracts and free courses, resulting in the inability to make independent profits.
According to 5km, stores withdrawing from shopping malls will be consolidated into other stores. Take the 5km Changning Longemont store and the 5km Changning Raffles store as an example. The latter will be merged into the 5km Zhongshan Park flagship store in Changning Youyou Center. "The 5km Zhongshan Park flagship store has been renovated and is expected to be completed by the end of June. It has an area of nearly 1,000 square meters and 6 classrooms, and will fully undertake all existing courses in the above two stores."
Picture source: "5km Dance Studio" WeChat public No.
html On the afternoon of June 14, the 5km Changning Raffles store was empty. A group of members who came to defend their rights gathered at the door. A reporter from "Daily Economic News" saw at the scene that an announcement announcing the store merger was also posted on the glass door of the store.5km store picture source: Photo by Huang Hai, a reporter from
. The reporter immediately contacted Youyou Center as a consumer. The wiring staff said that the mall did not have a dance studio store named 5km, and had not received any information about the dance studio. Opening news. "I am here at the Youyou Center. Let me tell you that we have not received any news that the 5km dance studio is moving in."
html On the afternoon of June 14, a 5km member also provided reporters with a copy of his and 5km courses Screenshot of the consultant’s chat. The consultant of the course said that the merger of Longzhimeng and Raffles stores was actually a "scam" and the actual controller "ran away" after proposing it. However, because the relevant parties of 5km could not be contacted, this statement was not further confirmed. The company behind5km dance studio is called Shanghai Weidan Strontium Culture Communication Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shanghai Weidan Strontium). According to information from Tianyancha, Shanghai Micro Single Strontium was established on April 29, 2015. The legal representative is Fu Xinyu and the registered capital is 1 million yuan.
It is worth noting that in early June 2024, equity changes occurred in many companies under Fu Xinyu’s name: On June 3, the shareholders of Hangzhou Puwu Physical Fitness Culture Communication Co., Ltd. were changed from Fu Chunyang and Fu Xinyu to Xia Bicui and Zhao Hong, the legal representative of the corresponding company was changed to Xia Bicui; on the same day, Weidan Strontium Culture and Art (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd., which originally had Fu Xinyu as the legal representative, also had the same personnel change, and the legal representative was changed to Xia Bicui.
Who is Xia Bicui? On the afternoon of June 15, the reporter called the 2023 annual report registration number of Micro Single Strontium Culture and Art (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd., but was prompted that the phone was turned off. The reporter tried to call another company under Xia Bicui's name, "Hangzhou Yushi Jujin Culture and Art Co., Ltd." The operator said that the call was actually from a 5km store in Gongshu District, and she was not aware of the changes at the company's shareholder level.
According to this person, the 5km store in Hangzhou is still open for business.However, according to local media reports in Hangzhou, some netizens reported that a "Letter to Customers" notice has been posted on the door of the 5km Hangzhou Raffles Center store. In the
announcement, Raffles City Hangzhou stated that Micro Single Strontium Culture and Art (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. (5km) had defaulted on rent payables and other breaches of contract, and would be held accountable in accordance with the law. Raffles tells customers to contact the store manager as soon as possible to discuss the subsequent processing of the balance on the card.
html On the afternoon of June 15, the reporter confirmed from Raffles City Center in Hangzhou that the above announcement was true.The headquarters was cleared of rent arrears, and the office was empty.
The building was about to collapse. Rumors spread, and no one could contact Fu Xinyu and other senior executives who were in the turmoil. In rights protection groups organized voluntarily by members and teachers, news has circulated from time to time that other brands are willing to take over some stores, but all the news has not been confirmed, and the relevant person in charge of the company cannot be contacted by the outside world. After
learned about the company's "explosion", Lin Yu tried many times to submit refund applications for students. However, the DingTalk platform shows that the colleague responsible for the business has resigned. Also leaving were the company’s human resources manager and financial manager. Key personnel resigned, leaving Lin Yu and other employees trapped in the system.
"We are all locked in, and we have no choice but to leave our jobs." Lin Yu said.
html On the afternoon of June 14, the reporter came to 5km’s headquarters located on Changshou Road, Putuo District, Shanghai. At about four o'clock in the afternoon, the door of the 5km headquarters was closed tightly. All kinds of office supplies were piled up in a mess inside the office, and there was no office equipment left on the table.
5km headquarters has been deserted. Picture source: Photo by Huang Hai, a reporter from
. The reporter saw a "Letter of Termination of Contract and Time-limited Movement Notification" signed by the property owner through the crack in the door.
The announcement showed that 5km was originally supposed to pay rent to the owner of Sha Tin Building on May 17. As of June 14, it was 28 days overdue. The property management clearly stated in the announcement: "After contacting your company many times, there is still no reply. You have substantially breached the contract... Please move out of your company's belongings before June 16th and inform the access code..."
There are people on site from time to time. Members and teachers came to defend their rights, but in the end they all came to nothing. A teacher who was owed one month's salary told reporters that as of the afternoon of June 15, the staff responsible for salary payment still had not responded. "I'm going to go to the labor arbitration on Monday to have a look."
Among the rights protection groups organized voluntarily by members, Sun Feifei (pseudonym) is a special one. At the end of May this year, Sun Feifei paid to become a 5km member on the recommendation of a course consultant. But after paying the fee, the store closed before she could get the contract. Sun Feifei felt incomprehensible and believed that she had been deceived by the course consultant. On June 14, Sun Feifei asked the course consultant to help with a refund via WeChat, but after the other party agreed via WeChat, there was no reply.
With no hope of getting a refund through the company, teachers who were owed wages and members who had nowhere to get a refund began to take action on their own initiative. Starting from the evening of June 14, some members chose to report to the police in their respective jurisdictions.
html On the afternoon of June 15, a reporter called the Shanghai 12315 hotline as a consumer. The operator said that currently they can only help consumers coordinate with the corresponding companies. For details, they still need to contact the Shanghai Culture and Tourism Bureau, the corresponding management department of the dance institution. .Daily Economic News
