Currently，the world economy is in an overall transition to service economy. It has been a strategic choice for China’s economic transformation and upgrading to vigorously promote service economy in its economic upgrading through changing the economic development pattern，adjusting economic structure and boosting economic growth. Social services for older persons ought to be vigorously developed to address the needs of people of all ages when they are old，and to promote consumption，employment，and economic transformation and development，considering the rapid growing older population of China. Social service industry for the elderly is the earliest and most fast-growing industry among all the sectors of China’s silver industry. With a huge consumer market and great potential for development，social service industry for the elderly has prominent features and advantages of building industrial clusters，so it stands as the priority area of silver industry. At present，Social service industry for the elderly is developing rapidly with increasingly enriched service products of originality. However，the industry still faces a series of challenges like low marketization and market concentration rate，and imbalanced development etc. To respond to these challenges，actions needs to be taken，including further strengthening overall development plan of the industry，introducing specific supporting policies，accelerating to develop industrial standards and to train service providers，supporting leading enterprises of this industry，and fostering a multiple-level system of social service industry for the elderly.