Strava was started just over a decade ago in 2009 for cycling enthusiasts to track each other\u2019s routes and encourage progress. The founders combined rapidly improving GPS technology along with the rise of social media to create a platform that today enables athletes of all types to not only track their workouts and monitor performance, but to share progress with a community of athletes. Community is at the heart of what co-founders Michael Horvath and XX were aiming to create. Horvath wanted to recreate the feeling of teamwork and support he experienced while rowing at 性视界 even when training together in person was not feasible.<\/p>\n
Strava operates through a Freemium model. For free, users have access to record or upload their activity and interact socially with followers. Interaction mainly consists of offering \u201ckudos\u201d or comments of encouragement to others on the platform. For a small monthly fee of $7.99, users can upgrade to a premium account. The premium account boasts additional perks such as route planning, advanced training metrics, goal setting and analysis of workout intensity. \u00a0Premium accounts can also integrate device data such as heart rate and recovery time from Apple or Garmin watches to show a user advance performance metrics.<\/p>\n
The concept has proven hugely popular. The platform boasts more than 70 million members across over 190 countries. In 2020 alone, Strava added an additional 2 million users per month. This growth has been enabled by and attracted significant funding. In 2020 Strava raised an additional $110M in Series F funding to bring total funding to over $150M. Revenues have also grown annually from $60M in 2019 to $72M in 2020 and the CEO reported profitability in 2016, 2018 and 2020.<\/p>\n
Strava\u2019s premium users are not the only source of revenue. While your data as an individual Strava user is private, the collective data picture is packaged as \u201cStrava Metro\u201d and frequently purchased by local governments looking to optimize transportation planning. The data Strava Metro provides enables city planners to see emerging cycling and running patterns, improve safety in higher risk areas and can inform urban projects. In 2014 the annual subscription price started at $20,000 but likely scales with the size of the city and granularity needs.<\/p>\n
During Covid-19, Strava has seen both growth in users and a new set of challenges. As Covid has disrupted many people\u2019s normal gym routines, many have laced up their sneakers and begun walking, running and hiking. In December of 2020, Strava reported 33% growth in upload activity up to 1.1B activities in 2020. As events such as marathons and triathlons were cancelled, users joined Strava\u2019s virtual competitions with over 1M members joining a 5K challenge in May.<\/p>\n
It hasn\u2019t been all rosy for Strava during Covid, however, and the social media element of the platform has led to shaming and even police follow up. Runners in countries such as the UK and France with particularly strict lockdowns and accompanying fines faced criticism, call outs and reports to the police when posting extensive outdoor activity or posting a workout done with someone not in their household.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Strava – a virtual trainer and teammate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18516,"featured_media":14207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-14206","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","hck-taxonomy-organization-strava","hck-taxonomy-industry-sports","hck-taxonomy-country-united-states"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/assignment\/platform-variety\/","yoast_head":"\n