This morning, it was learned that two of the services in our best list of physical conditioning applications were joining forces: Strava is buying Runna.
Strava, which we describe as an excellent service at free levels and premium with an excellent social media platform and monitoring integrations, does not really have much coaching form, prohibits the availability of some static training plans. This seems to make Runna, another highly qualified application is based on training plans, including an AI training service, a great adjustment.
As the CEO of Strava, Mike Martin, put it in an interview with Techradar, along with the CEO of Runna, Dom Maskell, “the way I think about it, is like the world’s biggest team in the world has just obtained a new coach. I think it is a really exciting way to position it.”
After reading the reactions in the Runna Subnet (cautious optimism, unlike the fury around the new Connect+ Garmin Premium level last month), I wanted to ask both CEO, especially Martin, if there is a temptation to force Runna users to eventually on board a new system, in the same way that Google has done with the Fitbit community.
Martin said: “I want to be really clear for the communities and for user bases … A key component of Strava is that we are and continue to be an open platform for the entire fitness industry connected. Therefore, we hope to continue doing so, and that is the way Runna is also integrated with Strava.
“I think there are many interesting opportunities so that we will accelerate so much the support we provide to the community in operation between the two businesses. And only to put a good point, this is a growth and investment game for us … not to make a game of forced integration, or something like that.”
A career for swimmers/cyclists?
I asked Maskell and Martin what the acquisition means for the users of both platforms, and short term, nothing will change. However, it seems that a particular Strava will eventually use part of the comprehensive technology of the Runna training plan in some way.
I also asked what Runna from Strava will take: of course, Strava also offers characteristics for cyclists, swimmers, triathletes and all kinds of other disciplines. Could we see AI coaches of the Runna brand for other sports in the future, with Strava’s help and investment?
Short answer: not yet.
Maskell said: “It has always been our long -term intention to explore other sports someday. The reason we did not do triathlon a couple of years ago is because it is very difficult to do. We would have to build a swimming application for Apple Watch, and we would have to give customer attention to cyclists, and all this kind of thing. We really wanted to really want to run before we started explaining other sports.”
However, Maskell has revealed some changes in his roadmap: “We will probably seek to internationalize the languages that do not speak English, probably in the coming years. Strava has many users … that number [of non-English speaking users] It is very, very high.
“We could decide to translate a lot of coaching comments, all videos, all the type of content in the application before, so that we can serve those users. I think that is the kind of things that would make sense to accelerate.
“In terms of other sports, I think that is more long -term vision.”
