The future of apps
It seems one thing that most successful fitness apps agree on is that the future lies offline.
FitTime, considered a rival to Keep, has started to offer paying personal trainers for its users. After purchasing the course, a personal trainer will be assigned and offer tailored diet and workout solutions.
One of the most popular courses costs 998 yuan. More than 100,000 users have signed up for the online tutorial and 30 percent of them are paying members.
According to its data, over 5,000 users are paying 1,000 yuan a month. Thus, such business can generate over 5 million yuan a month in revenue.
"We earned 10 million yuan via the newly established online weight-loss camp last year, accounting for 60 percent of total revenue," said Zhu Xiaoxiao, FitTime's chief executive.
Keep is also exploring the possibility of selling tailored classes for special needs, such as postpartum recovery.
A Dec 12 report by Sportbank, a Beijing based sport-related investment company, said the fitness app business is on the right track.
"Fitness apps help reduce the limits on the time, equipment requirements and space for users, and make it possible to exercise during their very limited free time," the report read. "It also provides online communities to fulfill the users' social needs. By providing a platform to share pictures and experience, it has made exercise much more fun, and that is why it's becoming so popular."
However, Zhong Bingshu, president of Capital University of Physical Education and Sports, expressed his concern over this much talked-about business.
"Those apps are too similar with the same content and service, such as blood pressure and heart beat monitoring," he said.
"People are reading it everyday but they can't get any other deeper information than the data itself."
The fitness app business is one reflection of the Chinese sports industry boom. According to a report by Analysys, a Beijing-based consultancy, the domestic market for the sports industry is likely to top 3 trillion yuan by 2020, with 1.5 trillion yuan for daily exercises practiced by the masses and the other half from competitive sports.
