While the concept of wellness has been around for a long time, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced many consumers to transform themselves to adopt a healthy lifestyle. As a result, consumers are increasingly taking their health into their own hands and started using fitness apps to track their physical condition to help them change their daily activities and diet plans.
What is MyFitnessPal?
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, MyFitnessPal is one of the most popular fitness and nutrition apps. It allows users to track their dietary intake and physical activity and provides personalized recommendations and tips based on the user’s goals.
Recognized as one of the best weight loss and fitness apps by Time Magazine, US News & World Report, Forbes, Business Insider, Huffington Post, etc., the app boasts over 200 million registered users and is available in 19 languages.
MyFitnessPal offers a premium subscription service that gives users access to additional features such as detailed nutrient analysis, custom meal plans, and exclusive content from health and fitness experts.
MyFitnessPal — The Origins
Necessity is the mother of innovation. Before the last decade, keeping track of calories consumed every day was extremely difficult and time-consuming. You needed to note down all the food intake in a diary or create complex spreadsheets to keep track of the number of calories you consumed every day. Thanks to Mike Lee- founder of MyFitnessPal, this information is available at your fingertips with a click of a button.
Mike and his fiance had planned a beach wedding and wanted to lose a few pounds before their big day. They went to see a fitness trainer who handed them a book of over 3,000 food types with their nutritional values and a notepad for tallying their calorie intake. Finding it cumbersome to manually keep track of their fitness, Mike sought a more sophisticated, time-saving solution to track his meals and wasn’t convinced with the then-existing websites. Mike had been coding since he was ten years old and decided to create his own program to make it easier to track food intake that would eventually turn into MyFitnessPal, which would go on to be sold to Under Armor for $475 million.
What makes MyFitnessPal tick?
MyFitnessPal has helped millions of people lose weight and get in shape and assists fitness enthusiasts in keeping tabs on calorie counts and diet plans, sharing information about different exercises and weight management. The user-friendly online fitness app has an extensive database of over 11 million food with nutrition information such as calories, fat, carbohydrates, protein, fiber, sodium, and more. Users can search for foods by name, barcode, or manually enter nutrition information.
The app also has an extensive database of over 350 types of physical activities with information on the number of calories burned. In addition, users can log their food intake and physical activity manually or by using the app’s tracking feature.
Its most significant strength is the convenience it offers to users. The MyFitnessPal app automatically keeps track of the users’ calorie counts. So they only need to manually log what they eat. And they get to know the remaining calorie intake for the day and healthy food options.
MyFitnessPal app allows users to do weekly weigh-ins where they enter their current weight and compare it with where they started. Further, the app automatically saves this information in the database. It then resets user goals for the upcoming week concerning calorie intake.
MyFitnessPal’s platform helps you get logged in seamlessly — a few questions about your body and why you downloaded the app. The app comes with a simple, clean, easy-to-use interface. You don’t need to read labels behind foods, just scan them and add a serving size. The app also allows you to add entries for previous days if you forgot and get notifications if you over-indulged at any time. The app also notifies you of the body’s needs and adds those suggested foods to your diet.
The app helps users stay focused on their fitness journey and nearly accurately predicts weight loss according to the amount of exercise logged. MyFitnessPal also provides a community support system where users can connect with other like-minded people who are trying to lose weight or get in shape. It also allows them to interact with their huge fitness enthusiast community, helping them stay motivated and learn from others who have successfully lost weight and taken charge of their health.
Business & Revenue Model For A Fitness App Like MyFitnessPal
1. Value Proposition: MyFitnessPal provides a comprehensive and easy-to-use platform that helps users track their progress and improve their health. The app offers a database of over 11 million foods, a barcode scanner, and monitoring over 350 activities. MyFitnessPal also provides support and motivation through peer groups, challenges, and rewards.
2. Key Resources: The MyFitnessPal website and app, its team of developers, customer support staff, and other employees, its database of food and exercise information, and its partnerships with other companies in the fitness industry. The company also invests in marketing to promote the app to new users.
3. Key Partnerships: MyFitnessPal has partnerships with fitness tracking devices and apps, food and beverage companies, and fitness studios. These partnerships help expand the app’s reach and make it more useful for users.
- Data partners: MyFitnessPal has partnered with several data providers in order to offer its users a comprehensive food and exercise database.
- Hardware partners: MyFitnessPal has developed integrations with many wearable fitness devices and apps, including Fitbit, Jawbone, MapMyFitness, Endomondo, RunKeeper, Strava, Garmin, and Nike+. These partnerships allow users to automatically sync their activity data with MyFitnessPal. In addition to generating revenue from premium memberships, these partnerships also help MyFitnessPal acquire new users.
- Content partners: MyFitnessPal has partnered with content providers like Livestrong and shape.com to offer its user's health and fitness articles.
4. Key Activities: MyFitnessPal’s key activities include maintaining its food and exercise information database, developing new features for the app, and partnering with other companies in the fitness industry. MyFitnessPal’s key activities include developing and maintaining the app, partnering with other companies, and marketing the app to potential users.
5. Revenue Streams: MyFitnessPal follows a freemium business model, which means it offers a basic version of the app for free and charges for premium features. This pricing strategy has allowed the company to tap into a larger market and generate revenue from users willing to pay for additional features. The app generates revenue through in-app purchases, subscriptions, and advertising. In 2019, the company generated an estimated $140 million in revenue.
- In-app purchases allow users to unlock premium features, such as detailed nutrition information and custom meal plans.
- Advertising allows MyFitnessPal to generate revenue from companies that want to promote their products and services to the app’s user base. Ads can be displayed in a variety of ways, including banner ads, interstitial ads, video ads, and sponsored posts. MyFitnessPal will work with companies to create customized ad campaigns that fit the needs of both the advertiser and the app’s users.
- Paid Subscriptions is where users can upgrade to premium membership with the app’s full range of features, including no annoying ads, a database of more than 300,000 foods, custom meal plans, granular insights into the nutritional composition of food, customized measurements for meals, and expert coaching. MyFitnessPal offers a variety of subscription options, including monthly and annual plans. Premium memberships start at $9.99 per month or $49.99 per year.
6. Cost Structure: MyFitnessPal’s costs include the cost of developing and maintaining the app, the cost of hosting its database, the cost of advertising, the cost of marketing, and the cost of partnerships.
7. Customer Segments: MyFitnessPal is designed for anyone interested in improving their health and fitness. People who are interested in tracking their calorie intake and physical activity levels. The app is particularly popular with people trying to lose weight, gain muscle, or eat healthier. MyFitnessPal is also popular with athletes and other people looking to track their progress and set goals.
8. Customer Relationships: MyFitnessPal offers free basic membership and premium membership. The premium membership gives users access to additional features, such as detailed nutrient data and the ability to set goals and track progress over time. The company has a dedicated customer support team that is available to help users with any questions or problems they might have. MyFitnessPal regularly updates the app with new features and improvements based on user feedback.
9. Channels: MyFitnessPal uses direct/online channels to reach its customers. The company also has a strong social media presence, with over 2 million followers on Instagram. MyFitnessPal has a website and the app can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.
Should You Create An App Like MyFitnessPal?
In 2020, the global health and fitness market was valued at $96.3 billion and was projected to reach $279.7 billion by 2025. The fitness app market is growing rapidly, fueled by the COVID-19-induced lockdown and heightened awareness about the relationship between good health and good eating habits. While over 100,000 health and fitness apps are available, only a tiny fraction are being used regularly. This means there are still many opportunities for new fitness apps to find their place in the market.
There are many fitness apps on the market, but there is always room for another unique product. By creating an app that meets the needs of your target audience, you can stand out from the crowd. There’s always a new way to help people get in shape, and there’s always an opportunity to create a better user experience. If you have an excellent idea for a fitness app, there’s no reason not to go for it!
How much does it cost to create a fitness app like MyFitnessPal?
The average cost to create a fitness app like MyFitnessPal can range anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000. The price tag will depend on the features and functionality included in the app, as well as the size and scope of your project. If you’re looking to create a simple app with basic features, you can expect to pay on the lower end of that scale. But if you’re hoping to create a more complex app with multiple features and functionality, you’ll likely need to budget for the higher end of that range. Ultimately, the best way to get an accurate estimate for your project is to consult with a professional app development company. They will be able to assess your specific needs and give you a more tailored price quote.
If you are a health-focused entrepreneur with an innovative take on apps such as MyFitnessPal, you’re at the right place. Oyelabs has extensive experience building world-class apps that are helping millions of people get healthier every day; our expert development team can help you create an app that truly stands out. So, schedule a free meeting to kick start your entrepreneurial journey!
