With gyms closed, online fitness platforms see a surge

As the Covid-19-induced lockdown continues, online fitness platforms are seeing a surge in the number of new users as well as the amount of time users spend working out through their platforms.

cure.fit, a health and fitness firm that offers both digital and offline experiences for fitness, among other services, has seen a 3x increase in the amount of time its users spend on cult.live, its live fitness classes.

“A lot of people are doing multiple classes a day; they were doing that earlier in the gyms, but the proportion of people doing multiple classes a day has increased,” said Naresh Krishnaswamy, growth and marketing head, cure.fit. “I think that is because the access is easier. You don’t have to travel to the centre twice to do two classes a day.”

Increasing focus on fitness

HealthifyMe, another health and fitness platform, has also seen the number of sessions users participate per week surge about 20 per cent. The session time in the app has also increased by about 25 per cent, said co-founder and CEO Tushar Vashisht.

“We are now seeing the highest revenue since the beginning of the year, from our customers,” he added. The company said it has also been seeing a 20-25 per cent uptick in the organic downloads of its app.

With work-from-home becoming the norm and almost zero commutes, people now have more time at hand. Plus, with the pandemic scare, they have become a lot more conscious.

“People are now working out far more regularly,” Vashisht said.

Fitternity, an online fitness-discovery and booking firm, recently introduced a live-streaming facility on its platform, akin to a marketplace of different studios hosting training sessions at different times during the day. Users have to get on the platform and book a class of their choice; post which, they are given a Zoom link to participate in it, said co-founder Jayam Vora.

Capitalising on the surge

To capitalise on the current surge and keep users engaged, these platforms are also coming with new features. cure.fit, for instance, has introduced pre-recorded celebrity workout sessions with actors, sportspersons, choreographers, etc. HealthifyMe has launched a set of artificial intelligence-driven, on-demand workouts for users, which stitches together fitness videos to create personalised workout routines based on customer interest and fitness levels.

“Even when the lockdown ends, cut to three months from now, you will have a situation where there will be a crossfit class happening in Bandra where there will be 10 people attending, and then there will also be four people attending from different parts of India virtually. That’s the model we are trying to create, where fitness is available offline as well as online,” said Fitternity’s Vora.

“People wanted to be comfortable with the fact that they can do fitness virtually,” he added. “Now that the comfort has been established, it is a matter of network effect.”

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