Having been an long distance cyclist for years (and a Netflix fan), I have been fascinated why one million people a year pay in home fitness company, Peloton $39 a month to ride online with their trainers. This is in addition to buying their stationary bike for $2,000!) Over the past five years, their success has pushed the value of this company to over $4 billion and has just filed its documents to go public.
Alot of what they offer is not new. There have been exercise videos with attractive male and female trainers for a long time. These started in VHS (remember those?) and now they can be found on many online websites. There have been excellent (and expensive) stationary bikes in the market that indoor cyclists have trained on for years.
What Peloton has done exceptionally well is created a new in home exercise business model They have combined top notch exercise equipment, variable training with personal interactivity and a social media community. They are able to offer a one to many and one to one solution simultaneously. Peloton has been called the “Netflix for Fitness”.
If you have never ridden a Peloton, it’s a stationary bike with an online video screen. (They also offer treadmill and yoga classes.) Riders can choose a live class or on demand ride with a trainer of their choice. They can select the type of music, the length of the ride and its difficulty. What is unique about the Peloton experience is that as you are riding, the trainer is communicating with people actually in the online class and you can communicate with the other people there too! You are able to form “personal relationships” with the trainer and the other riders while exercising in the convenience of your own home. Peter Shankman, author and social media expert (with his own Peloton addiction) says the brand has become “like a cult” because of this social media component. He explains that “people are finding their community” through these online exercise classes and then doing things together outside of the place they first met.
One reason people have always gone outside to seek group fitness classes is the motivation that comes with being in a group. With Peloton, you can get that now without leaving home. Eddie Yoon, from Eddie Would Grow says that unlike other training bikes before, Peloton’s service helps you form a community that helps you meet your exercise goals. He thinks that the many hours of live classes (that are later offered on demand) prevent the rider from repeating the same program over and over again and ultimately getting bored. Eddie also believes that the trainers have been encouraged to extend their brand outside Peloton on social media. In this way, they continue to grow their own personal community that ultimately benefits Peloton.
David Miller, author of the upcoming book on Peloton’s success, “Sweating Together” believes that they are differentiated by focusing on building a positive exercise community. With so much negativity in social media, people are drawn to a place that can motivate them to stick with their goals.
No one knows if Peloton has made a fundamental change in at home fitness or it’s just the latest fad for them. What they have done is utilized the latest technology to hook exercise enthusiasts.
Have you tried Peloton? What do you think?
