There’s no better motivation to go for a morning run than getting to show it off on social media, at least for someone like me. The FitBit app screenshot, the perspiration-laced selfie, the sunrise, it’s all Instagram fodder, and the right hashtags mean everyone laps it up. But do the people following you care about your progress, or encourage you to push yourself?
That’s where Strava comes in; the social network for athletes has grown massively since it started in 2009, as an app and website to connect millions of cyclists and runners, and has a large following in India as well. From logging statistics every day to tracking progress and setting challenges and forming teams, the app is for athletes to share their journey with others who are also interested in running and cycling. While they aren’t in the business of making hardware or wearables, the app is compatible with hundreds of third party devices, while the company develops apps for wearable tech such as Apple Watch and Android Wear.
We interviewed James Quarles, former business VP at Instagram, who recently joined the team as CEO. In his new role, he hopes to increase engagement and build a global community that’s always cheering each other on. Excerpts:
From business VP at Instagram to CEO at Strava, what do you bring to your new role?
Strava is a global community, quite similar to Instagram and Facebook. Just like those social media networks, more than 80% of our members also live outside of the United States. I lived in London and worked across Europe for a decade, so I’m excited to bring that experience.
What are the long and short-term plans you have for the company?
Long term, we want to build the most engaged community of athletes in the world, provide inspiration for people’s active lives, and be the next great sports brand of the 21st century. In the shorter term, you’ll see a lot of new social features. We’ve recently introduced the ability for clubs to post to the feed and have an ongoing beta blog feature that allows users to write about their ride, beyond just photos and captions. There’s so much expertise in our community of athletes that we want to make easier to discover and share.
What’s the one thing you would never change about Strava?
This is a community of people who are physically active, often in a group on a ride, a class or running a race together. Our audience are certainly on other social networks, but don’t want to share so much about one deep passion on those networks. In our space, people love being unapologetic in their enthusiasm for their athleticism. So for as long as Strava exists, we’ll be serving other athletes, strengthening their connections with each other and the sports they love.
What’s something that you intend to overhaul/improve?
We want to expand to more sports and activity types and support people when preparing for, during and after their activity. We want to be recognised as a great tool for discovering things to do as well as for motivation to go out and do them again.
How big is Strava currently, in terms of users and regular engagement? What keeps people coming back?
Strava has come such a long way since it started, now with tens of millions of members globally. One million new members are added every 40 days. Currently, 16 activities are uploaded every second, 10 million every week. And we crossed our one billionth activity upload just a few months ago.
How much money is being put into the fitness app segment?
People spend $270B per year on the entire fitness category globally and by 2020 we expect 500m units of fitness wearables to have been shipped. Our primary business is from Premium subscriptions, where people pay ₹500 per month or ₹4,900 per year for advanced features and analytics.
Our Metro business licences cycling and pedestrian commute data to city planners to help measure the impact of better transport infrastructure. Many apps in the GPS tracking space have been acquired by apparel companies, but we believe in creating a community that serves the sole purpose of engaging and motivating the athlete; not just as an avenue to sell more sneakers.
Community engagement and safety of personal information: how does one get the best of both worlds ?
Strava provides a wealth of tools to manage your privacy just the way you want. Accounts can be set to public or private sharing where you would approve each of your followers. You can set privacy zones around any address such as home or office addresses, so that start and end locations of their activities aren’t shared publicly.
Are fitness apps the new social media of choice? What does the future look like for fitness apps?
Sport and social engagement go hand in hand, so bringing the two together makes perfect sense. I think the future is exciting, especially as you continue to see the proliferation of more powerful wearable devices as well as so many apps that can be used to track indoor and in-home activities. I think the ultimate aim of all of these technologies is to try to replicate the power of a friend or trainer to motivate you to be more active, tracking progress over time to know you’re getting better.
Available on iOS and Android and here for Indian users .
Strava stats
16 activities uploaded every second, 10 million every week
100+ compatible mobile phones and GPS devices
130+ employees, with offices in San Francisco, Hanover and Bristol
600+ professional athletes are on Strava
1 million athletes join every 40 days
1 billionth activity uploaded in May
1.3 billion kudos given between athletes last year
100+ cities making commuting better with Strava Metro
