This is his hour of glory. Since 1er July, and the start of the Tour de France, Strava, the American application for monitoring sports activities, is displayed in mondovision. In the peloton, Strava is a well-known tool. In 2021, 72% of runners used this sports application. This year, it hopes to equip 100% of the athletes. Above all, the American company wishes to gain visibility by sponsoring this competition watched around the world.
The company is seeking to accelerate its deployment on the Old Continent. Initially devoted to cycling enthusiasts, and increasingly adopted by practitioners of running and outdoor sports, Strava claims more than 80% of users outside the United States. Its success, its social aspect. The application offers its users the opportunity to challenge themselves virtually on given courses, to participate in challenges, to share their performances.
Video coaching
Thirteen years after its creation, and a major fundraising of 110 million dollars (107 million euros) in 2020, Strava is finally generating profits. With a hundred million users – at a rate of one million newcomers per month – the company saw its revenues grow by 70% in 2020 and 2021 – helped, it is true, by the context of containment linked to the health crisis, during which it offered indoor activities. His ambition, explains his boss, Michael Horvath: “Become the paying reference platform for athletes. » Even if the application retains a freemium (semi-paid) model, Strava decided two years ago to focus its efforts on its paying subscribers, with new features reserved for them (more precise data analysis, videos, etc).
But Strava isn’t the only app to tap into consumer interest in exercise. Starting with smartphone and smartwatch manufacturers, which popularized activity measurement. Thus Apple recently launched, in December 2020, a video coaching application which simultaneously uses the data collected by the user’s Apple Watch. Cost of the service: 9.99 euros per month. Same strategy for Huawei or Garmin.
Objective: to encourage the daily practice of physical activity by rewarding it with euros paid into the card
Sports brands and distributors are also involved in competition, with a view to building customer loyalty, such as Nike, Decathlon, or even Go Sport in France with its Mercure program. The first two offer running training applications, while the last does not have an application in itself, but a functionality associated with the brand’s loyalty card, which records the data of the exercises carried out. by users. Objective: to encourage the daily practice of physical activity by rewarding it with euros paid into the card – up to 50 euros per year. But also create a stronger relationship with the user. And it works. “A customer who joins the program has a 50% higher purchase frequency”explains Thomas Hermann, Marketing Director of Go Sport.
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