Looking at Strava — as a user and as a product manager
For many runners and cyclists, Strava is their primary activity app/social network. Operating under a freemium model, the company, with more than 50 million users worldwide, dropped a bombshell by putting a number of existing features behind paywall last week. Intrigued by this move, I decided to take a deeper look at the product, from the viewpoints of an avid user and also of someone who works in product management as a day job.
What do I use Strava for?
I am a semi-obsessive runner and a slightly less obsessive cyclist — basically, the sort of user that Strava would love to convert to being a paid customer. Over the years, I used Strava for three main reasons:
Vanity
However much I like to think that I am a “pure” runner, I do religiously upload all my running and cyclist activities from my Garmin devices to Strava to keep a personal record, and also to show off a bit. It is nice to get the occasional “kudos” after a long tempo run.
Social
Related to the above, Strava is first and foremost a social network. This is no more evident than during the current COVID period, when it is nice to see how the others in Runhead AC, my local running club, are doing. I have also connected with runners I’ve met at different races around the UK. I would acknowledge their latest effort, however epic or small, by giving them kudos. I also find route/race/travel inspiration from people I follow.
Virtual recce
My wife and I often like to combine travelling with running. I have found Strava Segments to be especially useful for route planning/discovery. From the “segment leader-board”, I often browse through routes uploaded by other users for inspiration. For races, I have also relied on segments to figure out course terrain, elevation profile, etc.
Beyond that, I don’t obsess over training or analysis — I never follow any sort of formal training plan, and I don’t consciously regulate my heart rate when I run, for example.
Understanding the Strava product as a product manager
First of all, it would be interesting to try and understand the sort of users Strava is targeting and how it is going to maintain a viable business. I would guess its basic strategy is something along the lines of:
- growing its (social) network of users
- trying to convert users to paid customers, as they get more into their sports
Also, I would imagine the following user personas: 1) casual athletes 2) regular athletes 3) amateur enthusiasts — whether they are motivated by the social elements or not.
This is perhaps reflected in their premium subscription offering. Until March 2020, Strava had been offering a multi-tier subscription model focusing on different needs. Under the “Summit” plan, one could purchase one or more of the following packs:
- Training — training plan, goal setting
- Safety — tracking beacon
- Analysis — power meter analysis, heart rate/pace zone analysis, intensity analysis
Revenue streams
There are three obvious revenue stream opportunities for Strava: 1) selling data 2) advertising/partnership 3) subscription.
While activity data may be considered gold dust for many, recent controversies and the fact that Strava’s user data are location- and health-based probably mean Strava is restricted in how aggressively it can monetise the data.
Advertising-wise, Strava has tried to introduce advertising in its product features in quite a subtle way. Examples include Sponsored Challenges. They’ve also removed features that were considered blatant advertising. While, as a user, I appreciate the lack of in-your-face/creepy ads, my guess is that this subtle approach is not bringing the business a great deal of money.
And finally, subscription. Strava’s management has been very open about wanting to build the business based on subscription. This probably makes sense as I would imagine a lot of its users are in the right sort of economic brackets.
The popularity of running watches/bike computers
However, Strava is probably not getting as many subscribers as it would like. Its premium subscription offering makes a lot of sense until you consider that watches and bike computers are ubiquitous nowadays, and that most manufacturers are virtually offering all these features for free as part of their own apps. I know it is nice to able to see your own performance and social interactions on one single platform, but this is perhaps not enough to convert users with watch and computers to become Strava’s paid customers.
While these features benefit users who use their phones (running the Strava app) for activity tracking, for athletes who really care about all this data, they are not appealing. Most probably own Garmin/Suunto/Polar/Fitbit devices and apps already and can access the data directly from there.
Strava’s latest move
Running a fast-growing tech business is not cheap, and investors can start to lose patience.
Skilled tech specialists are costly to hire and to retain. AWS (or equivalent) costs add up. Strava is probably going to be losing money for every new user it acquires until it gets its subscription model right.
In fact, keen observers of the Strava business probably would have predicted some kind of change. After a relatively stagnant period, Strava sent out a user survey in August 2019 to figure out what its users want to get out of the product. A flurry of activity soon followed. Strava made a number of highly publicised feature releases and also consolidated its “Summit” packs into a single “Subscription” option.
And then last week — probably master-planned by the company’s co-founders who rejoined the company in November 2019 — Strava announced that it was “betting on its athletes”, by putting a number of key segment features behind paywall while keeping the majority of the social features free. Widening the free vs premium gap makes sense for Strava to help grow its subscription revenue.
Its community of users is its greatest asset, and Strava Segments, powered by its users, is something unique to the business that competitors cannot easily copy.
It is a shame that Strava could not simply add more value to its premium offering to organically convert its users to paid customers. Instead, it had to deprive its free users of a bunch of cool features. To be fair, Strava is pretty awesome as a free tool — many will be happy staying as free members, but I do think, at the current price point, a considerable number of users will think about paying.
I decided to start a free trial yesterday because I want to understand its premium subscription offering better to write this article, and also because I do miss the segment leader-board, to see what other local runners are up to. I guess I will decide whether to keep the subscription after the 60-day trial period.
Finally
With such drastic changes, especially when it involves removing popular features, user reaction is bound to be mixed. Looking at Strava’s competition and its unique positioning however, the risk of user churn is likely to be low. But ultimately, is the premium offering going to be attractive enough to take Strava to profitability? What is interesting also is how this is going to impact the wider Strava eco-systems of third-party integrators.
Only time will tell whether this is a winning move by Strava. But, at least, for now it has my payment details, and I will continue to add my run/ride to its growing database of activities tomorrow.
Very interested to hear what others think!
