{"id":1154,"date":"2015-10-04T18:11:19","date_gmt":"2015-10-04T22:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/map-my-money-how-mapmyfitness-became-a-150-million-platform\/"},"modified":"2015-10-19T17:26:22","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T21:26:22","slug":"map-my-money-how-mapmyfitness-became-a-150-million-platform","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/map-my-money-how-mapmyfitness-became-a-150-million-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"Map My Money: How MapMyFitness Became a $150 Million Platform"},"content":{"rendered":"

This summer, I did an internship in Washington, DC. One of my regrets from my two years in DC pre-HBS was not taking enough advantage of the beautiful surroundings; so this summer, I made it a point to go running often in the parks, around the islands and by the water. Enter MapMyRun, the app that became a part of my daily life. After many runs, I learned that MapMyRun was part of a platform called MapMyFitness, which boasted 20 million users and was sold to sports apparel company Under Armour for $150 million<\/a> only five years after the launch of its iPhone apps in 2008.<\/p>\n

MapMyFitness is an open platform that integrates with fitness tracking devices and provides GPS-backed apps such as MapMyRun, MapMyRide and MapMyWalk. The apps come in two flavors, for example MapMyRun (free) and MapMyRun+ ($2.99). The free version of the app, which I was using, lets you view routes that runners in your vicinity have taken, tracks your runs and your nutrition, and lets you set goals and challenge friends. The plus version is free of ads. In addition, the app offers an \u201cMVP Membership\u201d which provides heart rate analysis, audio coaching, and other special features, for $29.99 per year.<\/p>\n

\"App<\/a>
App Interface<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MapMyFitness leveraged direct and indirect network effects in several ways to truly catapult itself into the winning category:<\/p>\n