There is. No matter where I start a ride there’s a privacy zone around it.
I couldn’t find anything saying they’re turning a profit? Just current valuation? Might be in there, just didn’t see it.
That is certainly the issue they are facing. Comparing Strava and Instagram you can see that the value to the end user is in photo/ride-sharing, even though they have plenty of tools for photo editing/ ride planning & analysis. Facebook and other social media companies just ignored any complaints about data privacy and have pushed through due to the network effect. Strava has tried to monetize the additional features in my opinion because they recognize how much of the feeds are just being synced from Garmin/Wahoo/Zwift/TR. If they share the personalized data that would make for profitable ad services then many users would turn that sync off and Garmin could jump on it if they were able to take Connect out of the early 2000s for example.
Sorry, here is the TLDR; : )
“They ended up becoming profitable in 2020 and closing on a $110m investment round that values the company at $1.5 B.”
I read that. I guess I don’t consider investment and valuation as profit. By profit I mean, $$$ generated through revenue sources minus business expenses. Investment afaik is Here’s some $$$ in exchange for points.
I’m a little confused, profit is calculated from normal business operations and excludes investment. Do you have an accounting background that says otherwise?
My read of that article is that in 2020 two things happened at Strava:
- it became profitable
- separately, Strava raised $110M in round F funding
By round F, I would think many potential investors would demand profitability before considering an investment.
[quote=“WindWarrior, post:28, topic:81023”]
I’m a little confused, profit is calculated from normal business operations and excludes investment. [/quote]
Agreed.
That’s what I missed in the article (Not saying it isn’t there). I didn’t see where they said Strava was in the black. The last I read (which granted was a few years ago) Strava was still making a loss.
Julie quoted exactly from the first article:
And then something unexpected happened: COVID-19 turned our world upside down causing a stir in each and every industry. The H&F sector turned out to have the most prosperous times during the pandemic (and keeps growing).
Strava was able to capitalize on these macro changes with new in-app features and campaign activities. New activities brought on a whopping number of new users.
Constant iterations and recent activities combined made Strava have spectacular growth this year.
They ended up becoming profitable in 2020 and closing on a $110m investment round that values the company at $1.5 B.
“They ended up becoming profitable in 2020” = in the black.
Agreed. It didn’t say they became profitable because they raised $110M in funding, it said they became profitable AND they raised $100M in funding.
Two different ideas linked by a conjunction. I guess you could argue it is a poorly worded sentence, but the two ideas are not related, IMO.
Ray hits a lot of good points in his article…
The old guard not listening to new ideas can for sure explain the lack of new features and it sounds like some other execs are leaving so that may help in that area.
The “too good for free” is a good way to look at it. I pay mainly for the mapping feature but other than that there isn’t anything else I would. Roll out some new features and make them for paying members.
Ads suck but that is another way to get people to pay for things. There are a few apps I pay for just to get rid of ads so that can bring in some more revenue on both sides.
I really like strava and they’ve understandably taken some shit for bad decisions as of late. Hopefully they iron those out, don’t trip over themselves again, and roll out some new features to point them in the right direction.
I like Strava. Paid for it for a short stretch once but cancelled.
The thing I remind myself about Strava is that we could wake up tomorrow and it could be gone. All that data, all those miles, everything you sacrificed for those KOMs/QOMs. I broke my wrist in pursuit of one once. It has also caused a lot of problems in the community, especially mtb. I love being able to see other people’s data and compete on Strava, but maybe we’d all be better off if we returned to competing on the race course.
Strava is the only social media site I use because unlike the rest of them it inspires me to work harder, be healthier and explore the world around me. When I see other people’s posts it’s of places they’ve been, people they’ve ridden with and the bikes they ride. Very very seldomly is it a “look at me aren’t I pretty” pic or even worse, a ramble about why one political party is worse than another.
That’s why I pay for strava.
The only “problem” that Strava has is that the investors want a multi-billion dollar IPO or buyout and then those VC overloads will get the F out and not look back. They don’t give a crap about the endurance athlete community or building better software for us to use.
Strava could have been right sized into a small profitable company years and years ago.
While we can muse over the reasons for the requirement of a new CEO the more telling aspect is
more departures in the leadership team.
The introduction of a subscription model no doubt underpinned the increase in revenue from $98 million (2020) to $167 million (2021)
Whatever the reason for the departures must have been significant and a precursor for a step change from strava.
I actually would not mind ads if it is tailored for the activities that I do. Energy drinks, bicycle components, coaching apps.
Also why haven’t they given us the ability to plan workouts yet. If they come up with a simpler version of trainingpeaks I think a lot of users would signup to pay extra.
I agree that the planning and analysis functionality of Strava is wholly inadequate for there more serious athletes. I just don’t think that a more complex product like TP is what they need to convert more of their many non-paying users to a premium offering*
What they have tried so far is to make analysis more understandable for the casual user by visualization etc. I am just not sure that functionality for analysis and planning is what drives customer demand for Strava. Maybe if they think it even more into ‘gamification’?
At the heart, I think Strava is a social media platform. I appreciate, that they have avoided the toxicity of other social medias and have avoided annoying ads like on other platforms. But for years the development has happened at a glacial pace.
Maybe there is a sweetspot where they can monetize their large userbase better by directed ads without annoying people? I am also wondering if there is a way to monetize partnerships better and the fact that they serve as a hub for workout data.
*If there was an alternative to TP where coaches were present, I’d be happy to skip TP. It is ripe for disruption. I just think replacing TP is very different to what Strava does.
@gpl Ah - the next CEO ready for his “fire side” chat. Hopefully he ramps up the features so I feel like I am getting some value for my money.
Strava has a large user base, which is a great asset; but it has no good way of monetizing it. Move too many for-free features behind the paywall, and that great asset will just vaporize.
You can’t make money asking a small percentage of your user base to pay for the rest. All social media platforms have traveled that road. It’s either everyone pays and the user base drops (TP, etc), ads (Facebook), or a mix (Twitter).
Oh dear god. I step away for a few hours and return to find this.