Because of this epidemic, many people have realized the importance of physical health, and my country's fitness industry, especially the online fitness industry, has shown a rapid development trend. This article takes KEEP, Gudong, and Peloton as examples to conduct analysis in seven aspects. I hope it will be helpful to you.

1. Purpose of Competitive Product Analysis

The purpose of this competitive product analysis is to find out the iteration direction of Keep . The analysis is mainly conducted from the strategic, scope, and structural perspectives of Keep, Gudong, and Peloton, in an attempt to obtain the iteration direction and functional points of Keep.

(Keep version: v6.42.0; Gudong version: v9.28.0; Peloton: v1.0.173941)

2. Market Analysis

2.1 PEST Analysis

With the improvement of residents' income and consumption levels in my country, the enhancement of public health awareness, the popularization of the Internet, especially mobile Internet, and the gradual emergence of the government's policy guidance, my country's fitness industry, especially the online fitness industry, is showing a rapid development trend, with a large potential market size and a flourishing of various products.

2.1.1 Policy stimulus

In recent years, the government has continued to release many favorable policies for the sports industry.

Data source: Analysys Qianfan

2.1.2 Economic Development

According to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics, China's per capita disposable income reached 30,733 yuan in 2019, and its GDP reached 99,086.5 billion yuan. With the continuous increase in gross domestic product and per capita disposable income of residents, people's consumption demand for health and fitness will also increase further.

Data source: National Bureau of Statistics, Essence Securities Research Center

2.1.3 Social factors

With the rapid modernization of society, the public's consumption power and willingness are increasing year by year, which is the basis of fitness consumption. Contemporary health problems have become increasingly prominent, obesity rates have risen, sub-health is prevalent, the public's health awareness is becoming stronger and stronger, and many young people are willing to pay for fitness. The popularization of the Internet and mobile life has, on the one hand, promoted the spread of fitness culture, and on the other hand, lowered the threshold for mass fitness consumption.

Data source: Aidu Consulting, Essence Securities Research Center

The outbreak of the new coronavirus pandemic in 2020 made people realize the importance of physical health.

According to Weibo data, as of June 10, the topic #宅家健身打卡# has been read 470 million times and discussed 1.416 million times.

Restrictions on fitness venues and increased demand for sports and fitness have driven the growth of sports and fitness app users. As shown in the figure below, the number of downloads of Keep on the App Store iPhone since 2020. It can be seen that after the outbreak of the epidemic, Keep's user growth has shown explosive growth, with an estimated total of 6.57 million downloads.

Data source: Qimai Data

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, countries affected by the epidemic around the world have begun to ban or restrict the operation of gyms. Even in China, which was the first country to recover from the epidemic, the gym industry has not yet been fully opened and recovered.

Offline gyms have been hit hard, and many gyms and coaches have chosen to switch to online live classes. As shown in the picture below, well-known domestic fitness institutions conducted online courses and live broadcasts during the epidemic.

Data source: Essence Securities Research Center

In the United States, the world's largest fitness market, like China, many gyms quickly turned to online live fitness.

Equinox and SoulCycle, two of the leading fitness brands in the United States, have jointly launched the online fitness app Variis for their offline members to use. Planet Fitness, which owns more than 2,000 chain gyms across the United States, closed all offline stores, launched the #stay-at-home-fitness# column online, and released it on platforms such as Youtube and Facebook.

While this is the case with offline gyms, fitness apps are stepping up their efforts to launch live course function modules. For example, the domestic version of Keep launched version 6.42.0 on June 8, 2020, added a live course module, and launched 1-3 live courses per day.

2.1.4 Opportunities Brought by Technological Development

In recent years, artificial intelligence technology has developed rapidly, and many applications have gradually been integrated into human life.

With the development of the Internet of Things and 5G communications, intelligence will greatly change human behavior patterns in the future. In recent years, among the companies in the sports and fitness field that have received investment, online fitness and smart fitness projects have received more financing.

The following is from iResearch Consulting Group’s data on Series B investments in China’s sports and fitness sector in 2018. The same situation also exists globally.

The investment scope of smart fitness is relatively broad, including smart fitness equipment, smart fitness software, smart fitness services, fitness platforms, etc.

Data source: iResearch

2.1.5 PEST Analysis Summary

Due to the support of external environment such as politics, economy, society and technology, my country's fitness market, especially the mobile fitness market, still has a lot of room for development and huge potential in the future. For Keep, to occupy a larger market share, it is necessary to keep up with the changes and opportunities in the four external environments of politics, economy, society, and technology, iterate itself according to the needs and trends of the external environment, attract more user groups, and further improve user experience.

2.2 Market Status

2.2.1 Current Status of Domestic Online Fitness Market

Compared with developed countries in Europe and the United States, where the concept of fitness has entered the popular stage, the concept of fitness in my country is still lacking in popularity. According to statistics from the Global Health Institute (GWI), China's fitness penetration rate is only 0.8%. GWI predicts that in the next five years, Asia Pacific will surpass North America to become the largest spending region in the sports activities economy, with China and India expected to account for nearly a third of the sports activities economy market growth.

According to iMedia data, the scale of China's sports and fitness client users continued to grow from 2017 to 2020, but the growth rate slowed down. It is estimated that by 2020, the user scale will reach 352 million, with a growth rate of 12.1%.

Data source: GWI, iMedia Research, Essence Securities Research Center

According to the "2019-2025 China Online Sports and Fitness Industry Market Competition Landscape and Future Development Trend Report" released by Zhiyan Consulting, it can be seen that the market size of the online sports and fitness industry has increased year by year, increasing by about 100 million yuan each year.

Women have a stronger preference for fitness apps, while men are more interested in outdoor activities such as running and walking, and competitive sports.

In terms of age distribution, people under 30 prefer more intense activities such as fitness, and new fitness models such as smart gyms mainly attract young people. Online fitness products that use courses as their main product and take e-commerce into consideration have attracted more young people who have the energy to learn.

The figure below shows the distribution of active users and penetration rate of the sports and health industry in the third quarter of 2019. Judging from the user data of the industry's leading products, the number of monthly active users is basically in the tens of millions, but the penetration rate of the entire network is at a medium-low level in the entire Internet field, and there is still a lot of room for development.

Data source: Analysys Qianfan

The picture below shows the top five "Health and Fitness" apps in the App Store iPhone China region on June 10th. Keep ranks first in the free ranking and the best-selling ranking. In fact, since the outbreak of the epidemic, Keep has been steadily at the top of the two rankings.

Data source: Qimai Data

summary:

The market size of China's online sports and fitness industry continues to grow, and the number of users continues to grow, but the full network penetration rate of the sports and health industry is at a medium-low level in the entire Internet field, indicating that the domestic online sports and fitness industry market still has a lot of room for development.

2.2.2 Current Status of Overseas Online Fitness Market

According to statistics from the Global Wellness Institute (GWI), the economic value created by private institutions in the sports industry reached US$828.2 billion in 2018, of which consumer participation activities created approximately US$367.7 billion, accounting for 44%, mainly including fitness and sports.

The average penetration rate of the global fitness population is 3.7%, which means that 3.7% of the world's total population regularly participates in fitness activities.

In 2018, gym members spent a total of approximately $108.6 billion, with an average of $384 per person. In the global fitness market, approximately 190 million people spend money on commercial gym memberships, classes and training, totaling $83.1 billion. In addition, about 58 million people choose low-cost or free fitness venues, such as public gyms, free outdoor fitness and fitness classes, university fitness centers, etc.

GWI predicts that the sports activities economy will grow at an annual rate of 6.6% in the next five years, much faster than the global GDP growth rate (the International Monetary Fund predicts GDP growth of 5.1% per year). The global sports activities economy is expected to exceed US$1.1 trillion in output value. The Asia-Pacific region will surpass North America to become the largest spending region. More than 40% of the sports activities market growth will be in the Asia-Pacific region. China and India are expected to account for nearly one-third of the market growth, the United States will account for a quarter of the growth, and Europe will account for one-fifth.

Data source: GWI, Essence Securities Research Center

Peloton is the leading product in the field of home fitness live streaming in the United States and the world's largest interactive fitness platform, pioneering an online interactive and intelligently assisted fitness method. Let's take a look at its situation in the market.

As of June 2019, the cumulative number of Peloton-based exercises has exceeded 850 billion; as of December 2019, the number of Peloton member users has exceeded 2 million.

The changes in Peloton's free ranking and best-selling ranking in the health and fitness category in the United States from June 2, 2019 to June 8, 2020 are shown in the following series of figures. On the iPhone App Store, the free ranking has gradually risen and stabilized at around 20 in the best-selling ranking.

Data source: SearchMan

On the iPad App Store, the free ranking gradually rose to the top, reaching No. 1 at its peak, while the best-selling ranking remained stable in the top three.

Data source: SearchMan

On the Google Play platform, similar to the iPhone side, the free ranking has gradually risen and stabilized at around 20 in the best-selling ranking.

Data from SearchMan

In the Apple TV Store, Pelton ranks first in the free health and fitness category in the United States.

Data source: App Annie

It is worth noting that Keep also has an international version, which has been launched in 151 countries around the world. The figure below shows the ranking distribution of Keep in the health and fitness category on the iPhone side of the App Store on June 10. It can be seen that Keep has a very large layout.

However, the ranking is not satisfactory for the time being. The figure below shows the specific ranking. It can be seen that the international version of Keep is ranked almost after 20th place.

Data source: Qimai Data

summary:

The global sports activities economy is forecast to grow at an annual rate of 6.6%, faster than the growth rate of global GDP, with China and India in the Asia-Pacific region being the most promising.

Currently, the United States has the largest scale in the global fitness industry. Peloton is the leading product in the field of home fitness live streaming in the United States and is also the world's largest interactive fitness platform. The international version of Keep, which ranks relatively low in the world, and the domestic Keep can refer to Peloton's approach and adapt to local conditions and learn from its strengths to overcome its weaknesses.

2.3 Industry service upgrade direction

2.3.1 Service Quality

• Fun: One thing worth noting is that Ring Fit Adventure, a game launched by Nintendo in October 2019, was officially priced at around 500 yuan when it was first launched. Due to its popularity, it was once out of stock worldwide, and the price in China continued to be driven up to around 700 yuan. After the outbreak of the epidemic, due to shipment obstructions and a sharp increase in demand, its price was driven up to more than 1,500 yuan, three times the original price. According to Weibo data, as of June 10, the topic #Ring Fit Adventure# has been read 160 million times and discussed 128,000 times. It can be seen that the fun of fitness is an important factor in user growth and retention, and gamification is an effective means to enhance fun.
• Interactivity: With the development of 5G, live fitness will be the trend of fitness classes, and interactivity is crucial for live streaming. Peloton’s popularity is inseparable from its effective interactivity.
• The power of role models: Peloton has created a group of internet celebrity coaches, attracting a large number of followers. On February 7, top internet celebrity Li Jiaqi became the Keep cheering officer, and Keep launched the Li Jiaqi Energy Refueling Station exercise plan.

In addition, Peloton's online community has also invited celebrities such as former First Lady Michelle Obama, famous actor "Wolverine" Hugh Jackman, Ellen DeGeneres, host of the Ellen Show, and world sprint champion Bolt.

On June 5, Keep launched the topic #我与冠军PK# in the community and invited a group of world sports champions to join the community. These activities encourage users to check in for fitness, making the community more active. Users also establish broader connections and interactions with the community, increasing community identity and user stickiness.

2.3.2 Service breadth

Currently, the main users of domestic fitness apps are young people, but with the general enhancement of health awareness, the demand from users in other life cycles is not low. The breadth of services can be expanded to cover differentiated fitness courses for users of all ages, thereby achieving user growth. For example, young people prefer higher intensity exercise and pursue the feeling of pleasure and sweating; middle-aged users have increased needs for decompression and weight loss due to work and family pressure, and their tolerance for exercise intensity decreases. Sports and fitness products provide differentiated services based on the characteristics and needs of people of different age groups.

2.3.3 Service Depth

It can tap into the depth of services, connect various life scenarios, build a closed fitness loop, improve the fitness ecosystem, and increase user retention rate.

Image source: iResearch

2.3.4 Service Granularity

The service granularity can be refined and user portraits can be further segmented to provide more vertically segmented, personalized, and differentiated functions and courses for users with different sports preferences, different needs, and different consumption levels.

2.3.5 Intelligence

In response to the pain points of the current sports and fitness industry, the application of smart technology can provide more solutions to the problems and further improve the user experience. Intelligence is the inevitable path for the future development of the industry.

In 2018, Keep raised the application of artificial intelligence to a strategic level, launched the AI ​​smart virtual coach program, and promoted the implementation of intelligent fitness methods.

In the same year, Keep launched Keepland, which is Keep's offline urban sports space. In Keepland, users' exercise status is clearly recorded through smart sports equipment, and a training plan combining standardized teachers and offline teachers is adopted. It is a fitness product featuring data content + smart hardware.

In addition, Keep has been continuously developing the KeepKit product line. In addition to the most popular sports bracelets and body fat scales, Keep has also developed treadmills, spinning bikes, walking machines and other smart fitness equipment. We have also improved the corresponding functions of the APP for these smart devices and provided special courses.

Image source: iResearch

3. Choose Competitive Products

3.1 Finding Competitors

We have selected the following top-ranked apps with sports and fitness functions from the IOS fitness and bodybuilding app China and global rankings, Huawei sports app rankings, and iResearch Qianfan's statistics on the top apps in the sports and health industry in the third quarter of 2019.

3.2 Identify competing products

3.2.1 Direct competitor: Gudong

Gudong is the country's first GPS sports social mobile software. It tracks sports routes, meets sports friends, discovers sports information and fun facts, and can also broadcast live videos online to share sports experiences with users around the world.

Gudong’s target users are similar to those of Keep, and its product modules and designs are also very similar. The APPs all involve functions such as sports, live broadcast, shopping mall, community, etc., and their page designs are also similar.

Gudong’s live broadcast and interactive courses have more advantages than Keep, and it forms a direct competitive model with Keep.

3.2.2 Indirect competitor: Peloton

The Peloton App is the world's largest interactive fitness platform, with more than 850 billion workouts as of June 2019; as of December 2019, Peloton has a loyal community of more than 2 million members.

Peloton pioneered an online interactive, intelligently assisted fitness approach, and delivers immersive instructor-led premium courses to members anytime, anywhere.

Peloton is the first fitness company to be listed in the United States, with revenue of US$900 million in 2019. Its target audience is mainly overseas, with American users as the priority, which is somewhat different from Keep's main target audience, but the APP product function modules and service processes are similar to Keep.

Peloton focuses on smart hardware and takes software as a supplement; Keep focuses on software and takes replicating Peloton hardware as a supplement. Keep added a live course section to the new version launched on June 6. Peloton, which has a mature and complete live broadcast model, will be a good reference for Keep's iteration.

Moreover, Peloton plans to expand into international markets. If it enters the mainland market, it may put greater pressure on Keep.

4. Strategic Level Analysis

4.1 Official introduction and product positioning

4.2 Business Model

From the perspective of revenue structure, hardware equipment revenue is still Peloton's main source of revenue. Although online subscription service revenue accounts for a small proportion, it has been steadily increasing over the past four years. In the first half of fiscal 2020, Peloton's online subscription revenue reached US$144 million, accounting for 21% of the revenue.

This allows Peloton to maintain unit profitability while generating strong recurring revenue.

In addition, Peloton offers 39-month interest-free installments for large fitness equipment, which lowers the entry threshold for users and improves the competitiveness of hardware equipment.

In order to promote its brand and solve pre-sales experience problems, Peloton has also deployed a number of offline experience stores around the world, including 78 in the United States, 7 in Canada, 6 in Germany, and 8 in the United Kingdom. In Peloton's offline experience store, in addition to bicycles and treadmills, there are also sportswear displays.

In October 2019, Liu Dong, vice president of Keep, revealed that in Keep's total revenue, the first is sports consumer products, the second is membership, the third is advertising, and the fourth is Keepland. Moreover, sports consumer products account for more than half of total revenue. Among them, in the revenue of sports consumer products, smart hardware accounted for 35%, training equipment accounted for 40%, and food accounted for 25%.

In June 2020, Liu Dong revealed that in Keep's current revenue structure, the consumer products business has the largest sales scale, while the online business contributes the most profits. Keep can now achieve overall profitability. From these data, we can see that although Keep is the sports and fitness app with the TOP1 user base in China, its revenue is not significant and its business model still has a lot of room for improvement.

summary:

Peloton seamlessly combines the real physical world with the digital world through online interaction and intelligent assistance. The closed fitness loop it has created from sales, hardware, content, and community has greatly increased user stickiness, and its ecosystem is also gradually improving. Although its business model is difficult to replicate in China, it can still serve as a reference and inspiration to help Keep find a live broadcast method and business model that is suitable for the domestic market.

Keep's business model is very similar to Gudong's, with profits mainly coming from B-end advertising revenue, C-end paid course services, smart hardware, e-commerce platforms, and traffic. However, Keep's revenue is not significant and it still needs to optimize its business model.

4.3 User Characteristics

4.3.1 Search Index

From 2015 to 2020, Keep's Baidu keyword search and attention indexes were generally higher than those of Gudong;

In October 2015, after Keep and Gudong began to promote, there began to be a clear gap in the search volume on Baidu, with a period of growth and a period of stability.

Since the promotion, the average popularity of Keep's Baidu search index is 5346, and the average popularity of Gudong is 1413. During this period, the two highest peaks were 10061 and 11623 for Keep, and 9700 and 7100 for Gudong.

Therefore, from the overall peak, we can see that Keep's exposure, popularity, attention and user preference show that Keep is more popular than Gudong in the market.

Data source: Baidu Index

4.3.2 Number of users

In October 2019, the number of active users of Keep and Gudong on the entire network were 25.31 million and 5.659 million respectively, with Keep being about 4.5 times that of Gudong. The penetration rates of active users in the entire network were 2.5% and 0.6% respectively, and the penetration rates of active users in the sports and health industry were 22.8% and 5.1% respectively.

Data source: Analysys Qianfan

The average daily active users of Keep and Gudong are 2.868 million and 885,000, respectively, and the user activity levels are 8.8 and 6.4, respectively. In comparison, Gudong's users are more active. The average monthly usage days for Gudong is 4.8 days, and for Keep is 3.5 days.

(User activity: the average time interval between users using the app during the statistical period; the ratio represents how many days a user uses the app on average, and the closer the value is to 1, the more active the user is)

Data source: Analysys Qianfan

Among all online users in October 2019, the number of overlapping users of Keep and Gudong was 725,000, accounting for 2.4% of the total active users. Among the total active users, Keep’s exclusive rate reached 81.3%, and Gudong’s exclusive rate reached 16.3%.

Data source: Analysys Qianfan

The following is an analysis of the active user trends of Keep and Gudong from November 2018 to October 2019. It can be seen that during this one-year period, the number of active users of Keep has rapidly increased by 14.85 million, an increase of 142%, while Gudong has lost 780,000 users, a decrease of 12%. The gap between Keep and Gudong in terms of user numbers has rapidly widened.

Data source: Analysys Qianfan

As of June 30, 2019, Peloton had more than 511,000 connected fitness subscribers (All-Access members, $39 per month) and approximately 102,000 digital subscribers ($12.99 per month). In fiscal years 2017, 2018 and 2019, the number of connected fitness subscribers was 108,000, 246,000 and 511,000 respectively, with year-on-year growth of 128% in fiscal year 2018 and 108% in fiscal year 2019.

Data source: Peloton prospectus, Essence Securities Research Center

4.3.3 Number of times used

In October 2019, the average number of launches per person for Keep and Gudong were 10.5 and 15.2 respectively. However, the average number of launches per person per day, that is, the average number of launches per active user on that day, was about 3 times. This shows that the daily usage frequency of Keep and Gudong users is similar.

Data source: Analysys Qianfan

In addition, the average monthly exercise frequency per person at Peloton was 7.5 times in fiscal 2017, 8.4 times in fiscal 2018, and 11.5 times in fiscal 2019, which is not much different from Keep and Gudong.

Data source: Peloton prospectus, Essence Securities Research Center

4.3.4 Duration of use

The usage time of Keep and Gudong were 23.994 million hours and 8.714 million hours respectively, and the average usage time per person was approximately 0.9 hours and 1.5 hours respectively. Although there is a large gap in the number of active users of Keep and Gudong, the average usage time of Gudong is approximately 1.5 times that of Keep, which may be related to the stronger community outdoor running atmosphere of Gudong.

If a high proportion of Gudong users use the outdoor running record function, this difference may occur, but no detailed data has been found to prove this. And when averaged out to daily usage, the average daily usage time per person for KKEP and Gudong is 16.2 minutes and 18.9 minutes respectively, and the difference is not significant.

Data source: Analysys Qianfan

4.3.5 Next Month Retention Rate

The next-month retention rates of Keep and Gudong from November 2018 to October 2019 are as follows. Overall, Keep is relatively stable, while Gudong has an upward trend.

Data source: Analysys Qianfan

In addition, Peloton has a very high retention rate. According to the figure below, it can be inferred that the average monthly retention rate is above 93%, which is much higher than the retention rates of Keep and Gudong.

Data source: Peloton prospectus, Essence Securities Research Center

4.3.6 User Attributes

The following data are all attribute analysis of users across the entire network in October 2019.

From the perspective of consumption level, the user ratios of Keep and Gudong are very similar, and they are mainly middle-income consumers.

Data source: Analysys Qianfan

From the analysis of user gender, Keep is mainly composed of female users, and the number of female users is about 2.5 times that of male users. This may be because Keep, which mainly promotes indoor fitness, caters to the needs of many women.

Gudong is mainly used by men, with male users being about 1.5 times that of female users. This may be because Gudong mainly promotes outdoor running and cycling. Relatively speaking, the proportion of men among people who love outdoor running and cycling may be higher.

Data source: Analysys Qianfan

From the analysis of user age distribution, overall, the main users of Keep and Gudong are under 40 years old.

Keep has mostly young users under the age of 24, accounting for about twice that of Gudong. People under the age of 24 are mainly students and young people who have just started working. They are energetic, easy to accept new things, pay more attention to appearance and social trends, have a strong demand for fitness, but lack savings, which makes them prefer online fitness courses rather than expensive offline gyms.

Data source: Analysys Qianfan

The figure below is an analysis of the trend of active users under the age of 24 across the entire network from November 2018 to October 2019. During this period, there was an increase of 8.915 million, which means that it accounted for 60% of the total growth in Keep's active users during this period.

Data source: Analysys Qianfan

It is worth noting that the figure below is an analysis of the trend of active users aged 24 to 30 across the entire network in the same period. The number of active users increased by only 1.014 million, accounting for only 7% of the total growth of Keep's active users during this period. In addition, people aged 31 to 35 accounted for 20%, or 3.039 million; people aged 36 to 40 accounted for 10.5%, or 1.558 million.

Data source: Analysys Qianfan

From the perspective of geographical distribution, users who search for Keep and Gudong are concentrated in economically developed areas, where young people with fitness and sports needs are concentrated.

Among them, Gudong has a higher share in super first-tier cities and first-tier cities, while Keep has a higher share in second-tier, third-tier and other cities.

This may be because Gudong, which focuses on outdoor running and cycling, has higher requirements for outdoor scenes, such as roads or greenways suitable for night running and cycling.

Data source: Baidu Index, Analysys Qianfan

From the perspective of mobile phone brands, the users of Keep and Gudong are mainly concentrated on four brands of mobile phones: Apple, Huawei, OPPO, and VIVO, among which Apple has the largest number of users.

Huawei users account for 16.2% of Gudong, while Huawei users account for only 10.5% of Keep. VIVO users of Gudong account for 19%, while VIVO users of Keep account for 33.7%. This may be due to the difference in the recommendation order of the two apps on the application platforms of these two brands of mobile phones. It may also be related to the compatibility of smart wearable devices, but there is currently no data to support this.

Data source: Analysys Qianfan

4.4 User Positioning

• Keep : Young people who like socializing and light fitness (light: a small amount of time, appropriate amount of exercise, flexible time and venue).
• Gudong: Urban young people who like outdoor running and offline events and competitions.
• Peloton: Users with certain purchasing power who have the need and interest to exercise at home.

4.5 User Requirements

Keep:

• A one-stop solution for all sports needs;
• The training plan is designed for different groups of people, various equipment and stage fitness goals, and is applicable to the widest range of fitness scenarios;
• Sports community: share fitness results and make progress together;
• Equipment requirements: The mall provides branded clothing, equipment and smart equipment.

Gudong:

• Runners need to monitor their own physical exertion;
• Users need to record their running distance, running time, running steps, running stride and running track;
• Users need to be able to quickly find a good running place and environment;
• Running enthusiasts want to share their running experiences;
• For indoor running enthusiasts, there needs to be a way to record running conditions without relying on running mileage.

Peloton:

• You can also get guidance from teachers when training at home, without being restricted by time and space;
• The game-like competitive atmosphere is strong and easier to stick to;
• Social needs: communication and encouragement with teachers, classmates, and other fitness enthusiasts;
• Effective feedback: Get monitoring of training data, course rankings, etc.
• Fragmented use of time.

5. Scope layer analysis

5.1 Functional Specifications

Keep function:

• Keep's product positioning is to create a one-stop sports solution platform for users, covering several major modules such as fitness, basic sports, social networking, shopping malls, diet, consulting, and offline sports venues. It is also designed to be relatively comprehensive in terms of training. The training guidance ranges from large to small, and is composed of movements, courses, and long-term plans.
• Keep has spent a lot of effort on content creation, forming a relatively diverse range of courses, but there is still room for improvement in the quality, breadth, depth and granularity of the courses.
• Keep intends to develop live courses, but most of Keep's current live courses are self-developed courses with fewer categories and high fees. After entering the live course, you cannot experience its advantages over the recorded courses, and it lacks fun and interactivity.
• Keep has also made investments in smart fitness hardware. Although it is not as good as Peloton, it has already demonstrated data operation capabilities and experience. From the user experience perspective, Keep’s course functions are not well integrated with smart hardware. You can choose to connect a smart device before entering the recorded course, but apart from being able to obtain data, there are no other functions. Keep has configured corresponding courses for its self-developed smart devices, but the number is very small and cannot meet the needs of users.
• Keep’s community operations are exactly the same as Peloton’s, inviting celebrities to "endorse" training plans and inviting national athletes to join the community to initiate topics. However, there is a lack of effective interaction channels between users and celebrity role models.

Gudong features:

• Gudong focuses on "sports + social interaction".
• Compared with fitness training, Gudong pays more attention to basic exercises.
• Sports Circle, Discovery, Practical Information, and Sports Group reflect Gudong’s emphasis on social aspects, and are a more prominent part compared to the other two competing products. Sports circles are similar to Weibo, where users share updates to gain comments and likes, and further gain attention and fans to reflect their personal social scope. Sports groups further elevate social interaction to the level of social groups based on sports circles, allowing a group of like-minded people who love sports to get together to maximize the spirit of sports and increase users' sense of belonging and honor.
• Events and activities further extend online social interaction to offline. There is no Gudong without social interaction.

Peloton features:

• Peloton drives membership subscription services through smart hardware and live classes.
• The APP is simple and elegant with streamlined functions.
• Online live courses are highly social and interactive, and also have the function of real-time rankings. The warm atmosphere greatly increases users' enthusiasm for exercise.
• Peloton has long been aware of the appeal of celebrity coaches to users, and has consciously recruited a group of "fitness stars" with celebrity qualities and appearance to conduct live course filming, focusing on operations on social platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, filming their stories, and having them appear on TV for interviews.

Summary:

All three fitness products are positioned as interactive fitness platforms that integrate the physical and digital worlds. Each has a loyal community to create a new immersive and interactive fitness experience.

After years of product polishing, the three products are similar in function. However, based on the company's business strategy and market operation model, the product positioning has different investments in some key business segments. Peloton relies on smart fitness hardware, celebrity coaches and live courses; Gudong focuses on basic sports experience, with social interaction being the most important part; Keep focuses on high-quality courses and regards smart fitness hardware as a new profit growth point.

6. Structural layer analysis

6.1 Information Architecture

Keep framework diagram:

• Keep's product development relies on its powerful premium course function and extends to other functions.
• In the product information architecture, it is composed of [Home], [Plan], [Campaign], [Mall], and [Me].
• In this version optimization, core sports functions such as courses, activities, live classes and paid classes have been readjusted to the first-level navigation position on the homepage. Compared with previous versions where you had to enter the mall to see the course content, this update has made a big change.
• The bottom of the homepage also includes recommended expert updates, which means that Keep puts the social function on the same level as the course function, directly competing with Gudong's social function.
• In this version, the live class function has been launched and placed in the first-level navigation position on the homepage. The intention to enter live fitness is also very obvious.
• The training plan is located on the second tab. After entering this tab, you can select the plan type and pay to become a member to participate in the plan. However, due to the small number of current planning categories, a corresponding classification model is not required. In the future, with the increasing number of training plans, the existing training plan selection page will become very confusing and mixed.

Gudong framework diagram:

• Gudong’s main feature is intelligent sports, among which the most outstanding is the recording of basic sports.
• Its product information is divided into five modules: [Sports Circle], [Discovery], [Sports], [Goods], and [My], which is very similar to Keep.
• The first label [Sports Circle] includes multiple categories such as [Popular], [Follow], [Short Video], and [Events]. Social expressions involve various forms such as pictures, dynamics, short videos, etc. The content also includes training records, training methods, mall products and other interactive topics, reflecting Gudong’s emphasis on and development of sports social functions. Gather users through topics, live broadcasts, discussions, etc. to promote the construction of this social network.
• However, the current classification of the sports circle is rather confusing, as it confuses labels of various attributes such as function, presentation form, and purpose of exercise, making users lose the logic of finding information.

Peloton framework diagram:

• Peloton also has five first-level navigation tabs, namely [Featured Courses], [Challenges], [Courses], [Personal Center], and [More]. The first three tabs are all related to courses, but each has its own characteristics.
• 【Featured Courses】We have carefully selected the latest live courses of all kinds and classified them in detail, and also attached high-definition live sports pictures.
• The [Challenge] function lists the ongoing challenge projects. In the current version, there are 4 challenge projects and 3 upcoming challenge projects. All of them are displayed with simple pictures, and the content is simple and clear.
• Under the [Courses] tab, courses are divided into major categories. For sports people with certain experience, they can choose any course they want to participate in.
• Peloton's social functions and shopping mall functions are hidden in the [More] function. You can enter the official website through the [Clothing Mall] to purchase the corresponding clothing and equipment.
• There are not too many social functions in the entire App. Apart from finding friends, following friends and sharing exercise processes, there is no dedicated sports social page. In other words, Peloton still focuses on high-quality fitness course functions, simplifies the structure of information display, and provides intuitive course content.

summary:

Keep and Gudong have developed over the years and have become relatively mature fitness apps. Their main functions include sports records, fitness courses, sports social networking, sports equipment and other solutions. However, due to their product positioning and key functions, their product information architectures are different.

6.2 Product Logic

Keep:

Gudong:

Peloton:

summary:

The underlying logic of Keep and Gudong is relatively similar. Both are led by their own operation teams, allowing users and coaches to participate more, create topics, and liven up the atmosphere. Peloton focuses on interactive teaching between coaches and users through official smart hardware, adjusting students' exercise rhythm in real time, and students can also see each other's sports results, which can motivate them to focus on the sport itself.

6.3 Interaction Design, Operation Process and User Experience

6.3.1 Operation process

Keep:

Gudong:

Peloton:

6.3.2 Information display and function points during operation

6.3.3 Summary

Keep:

1. The overall operation process is smooth. When you start a course for the first time, some courses require you to wait for the course video file to be downloaded before entering the training, while some courses do not require you to wait for the course file to be downloaded. This may be related to the size of the course video file.
2. Before training, you can be informed of the course information so that you can have a basic understanding of the course; you can view the dynamics of people who have recently completed the course training, and leave comments on the course to create a social atmosphere; you can choose to cast the screen and select the background music for this training to meet personalized needs;
3. During training, there is voice guidance; you can view detailed explanations of each action at any time; you can turn on the training live and send cheers with the people who are training at the same time to create an atmosphere of exercise for multiple people; if you encounter problems with the current movement, you can provide feedback on the problem;
4. After training, the basic information of this training is displayed; support sharing to other platforms and posting updates within Keep;

Gudong:

1. The overall operation process is smooth. When starting the course for the first time, you must wait for the course video file to be downloaded before entering the training;
2. Before training, you can inform the basic information of the course; be able to check the current connection status of smart equipment and make connections; you will recommend some other courses;
3. During training, there is voice guidance, but the rest of the functions are not rich;
4. After training, there will be honors and encouragement to this exercise; display the basic information of this course training; display the people who have just completed the same course and support like them to create a social atmosphere; support sharing on other platforms and posting updates in Gudong. Posting updates will automatically generate a picture containing the basic information of this exercise, and support identifying the good products used in this exercise;

Peloton:

1. The overall operation process is smooth. When starting the course for the first time, you do not need to wait for the course file to be downloaded, and you are cached while watching;
2. Before training, in addition to the basic course information generated by the course creator, the public's evaluation of the course will also be displayed, such as the like rate and the public's difficulty score; the background music for this training can be selected;
3. During training, you can view the current progress of others and send cheers with those who are training at the same time to create an atmosphere of exercise for multiple people; display the current calorie consumption; if you are bound to a heart rate device, you can view the current heart rate in real time and observe the physical condition of the exercise; you can choose to cast the screen,
4. After training, you can choose whether to like the course and choose the difficulty of this training;

Optimization suggestions for Keep:

1. Before training, users can be guided to connect to smart devices, which can better view their physical condition during training; if the user does not have smart devices themselves, they can also guide users to purchase smart devices in the mall;
2. During training, Keep can view other users who are currently participating in the course and support interaction, but cannot view the current course progress of other users. It is recommended to add this function to create a more realistic multi-person training atmosphere;
3. During training, it is recommended to add real-time calorie consumption and heart rate (if smart devices are bound to) so that users can understand their calorie consumption and their real-time status during training;
4. In the sharing dynamics after training, a picture with the training information of this course can be automatically generated to reduce the sharing cost of users; it can also support the identification of good products in this training and increase the exposure of mall products.

VII. Conclusion

7.1 SWOT Analysis

7.2 Product iteration direction

This analysis is to determine Keep's product iteration direction, and our goal is to improve fun and interactivity, create favorable conditions for role model power, improve intelligence, improve the course system, and improve the ecology to occupy the live fitness market, improve user growth and retention rate, and increase profits.

7.2.1 Iteration direction 1: Optimize live broadcast functions to improve interactivity and fun

1. Interact and follow students on live courses;
2. By linking with smart devices, user sports data ranking competitions are held in the live broadcast room and rewards are given to the forefront.

7.2.2 Iteration direction 2: Create conditions for role model forces and optimize community sectors

1. The penetration of mainstream social applications can be achieved by sharing exercise rankings on WeChat and Weibo through the sports and fitness app;
2. Add celebrity certification to user accounts to enhance user enthusiasm through role models.

7.2.3 Iteration direction 3: Improve the degree of intelligence

The course page displays the "heart rate" and "calorie consumption" data obtained from smart wearable devices in real time, increasing the linkage between smart devices and courses, and improving user experience.

7.2.4 Iteration direction 4: Improve the curriculum system and have a wider audience coverage

1. Add differentiated course classifications for different age groups;
2. Added the "Sports Medicine Guidance" course classification section to provide special and differentiated fitness guidance for people with varying degrees of strain and osteoarthritis.

7.2.5 Summary

Through the analysis of Keep, Gudong and Peloton competitors, the iteration direction of Keep was determined, and the online live broadcast function was optimized, intelligence, community optimization, and curriculum system optimization were improved, and the ecology was further improved, and a fitness closed loop was created.

The purpose of this series of iteration directions is to improve user growth rate and retention rate, improve community activity and user stickiness, and increase profit points for the Keep platform.

Author: Li Jianyin

Source: Li Jianyin