DIGITAL MOTIVATIONSTRAVA:STRIVINGTO WINOnce synonymous with cycling
and running, the activity-tracking app
is now aiming to become the social
network for those serious about sportHow do you take an app that’s doing
well, and make it ultra-popular? For
James Quarles, the chief executive of
San Francisco-based activity-tracking
company Strava, achieving scale was
the priority. He joined from Instagram
in 2017, where, as vice- president of
Instagram Business, he had overseen
the growth of monthly users from 300
million to 800 million in just three
years. (Additionally, from 2011 to
2014, he was Facebook’s regional
director for Europe, the Middle
East and Africa.) This is what Strava
wanted for its own social network.
Strava is a fitness app that styles itself
as a social network for people serious
about sport. But market competition
is fierce: brands such as adidas, Under
Armour and Asics have acquired popular
apps like Runtastic, MapMyRun and
Runkeeper, while makers of wearable
devices – such as Fitbit, Samsung and
Apple – are pushing customers to use
their platforms. In China, the world’s
largest app market, local champions
Keep, Yodo Run and Codoon dominate.
Quarles’ strategy at Strava has been
to build a social media platform for
athletes, while incorporating a highly
competitive twist: “We exist to digitise
motivation,” he says. Strava, co-founded
by Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath in 2009, recently reached a million
active users – a significant number for an app, but still very modest
when compared with, for example, Runtastic’s 130 million. Still, under
Quarles’ stewardship, the company has reported the highest growth in
its history. By May 2017, Strava’s professional athletes and dedicated
amateurs had logged one billion activities since it was founded;
a year and a half later, that number had surpassed two billion. PHOTOGRAPHY:^ CHRISTIE^ HEMM^ KLOKILLUSTRATION:^ NEASDENCONTROL^CENTRE09-19-WSprofile.indd 52 19/07/2019 15:22