If you are one of the 50 million who use Strava you may have seen a pretty big development announced today - the segment leaderboards will no longer be open to free accounts, and you will need to subscribe to see them. Good explanation here from DCRainmaker, and how this will effect the 40,000+ third party apps that use leaderboard info.
Do you care about segments? I have a subscription and I think I do care, but not a great deal (I definitely care about tracking my own segment times, but that seems like it will be unchanged). Gone are the days of 2012 / 13 belting it down some mountain bike trail to get in the mix for the KOM, the dynamic has almost completely shifted to a social app for my experience. Sharing rides, seeing where people are riding, a few photos - the route planning is very good now as well.
So it might not make all that much difference to me, but does feel strange that their killer app, the one thing they pioneered that made them different to all of the GPS trackers back in the day, is now going pay to use.
There are some angry voices out there in response to this, but I’ve always felt Strava was a really generous app with the features. Too generous perhaps - given the non-profitability that is driving this change. I’ve had a subscription for a while but isn’t the free version extremely light on ads? They have taken some aggravatingly intrangient stances on fixing certain bugs, but overall it’s been an exceptional sports app - probably say one of the best of any app I’ve used, thinking about it.
What does it take to start making coin off a software app? Pretty sobering that something like Strava is struggling to find the formula. You couldn’t dream of a market reach or penetration like Strava if you were just starting out.
I’m not very surprised by this. I’ve used Strava for a few years and have looked at the Leader boards once or twice only, more as of a curiosity. I quickly found out that I’m solidly in the bottom 25% and have zero competitive urge to move up the list even if I could.
I also found the KOM’s / leaderboards (in my area at least) are a complete bunch of bullshit. They’re very easy to fake (unless they’ve fixed them recently). One flat stretch I ride had the KOM leader cycling at about +90kmh for 15 minutes. (If you don’t know how to trick Strava, just go to Youtube and search. Lots of videos).
I cycle purely for personal fitness and use it to track my rides and as a social app to encourage friends who also use it. It seems the benefits they offered for going premium are targeted at the competitive riders, but I will have a look at the new tiers to see.
I agree completely, I’m happy to look at relevant ad’s and click on appropriate ones and I’m surprised there aren’t more or better targeted ones. It seems like such a natural for any sports retailer that ships globally or even manufacturers of gear like Nike, Trek and so many others. I’m not sure how they’ve missed the mark so badly.
Meanwhile, the ads & competitions (that I see at least) are ridiculously poorly targeted at high end competitive cyclists. I regularly get “competition winner” coupons (cycling +500km/ month) for £50 off a £250 pair of bib shorts at LeCol, WTF? The average Jo cyclist is not buying £200 bib shorts. I’m certainly not.
It strikes my that this is a failing of Strava itself, maybe their strategy or ad salesforce, not of apps in general.
From many that I’ve seen, they’re a frickin’ joke. Make up your own, you get to be king (queen) of the segment, at least until someone else discovers it & then kicks your ass on it. I’ve seen places with multiple segments overlaying at least part of the same route. - I can’t beat you on your existing segment, but if I add 50’ to it, then I am the greatest (mainly because I’m the only one that has done that specific segment).
For those that don’t know what Strava is, or what segments are, it’s a social media platform for runners & cyclists; you can set it to automagically upload your run/ride data from your GPS recording device, whether a Garmin, Polar, Suunto, or other GPS watch, a Garmin, Wahoo, or other bike computer, or even by recording your activity with the right app on your phone. Then others, even complete strangers can see your data, sometimes in the aggregate; think heat maps of the most popular routes. Two years ago it came to light that they were sharing the location of secret military locations - (Why is there a bright spot in the heat map in the middle of Afganistan; could it be that members of the military are there & running regularly on that small, previously secret base?) & even could be used to stalk someone & figure out where they live & when they run. (since many people start their runs from their front door)
Segments are the modern variation of “I’ll race you to the town line sign” The first person creates a given segment & then it’s there for others to see/beat if they try to.
While I’d get lapped (a couple of times :(), in a 5000 meter race, I bet I could be the world record holder in the 5053 meter race, at least until someone else runs/rides that exact distance/route. :rolleyes:
I don’t find that to be the case Spiderman. Most segments that people are actually interested in are the climbs, and we all know where the climb starts and stops. If someone happens to have a KOM because they’ve made a segment that starts 200m before the climb itself, the only person who is going to notice or care is them. You can also hide segments you are not interested in. Also, most segments of slightly different lengths will be picked up by everyone anyway, someone who is KOM of the logical climb segment is probably also KOM of the 30 other slightly different climb segments.
As for the changes themselves, I think it’s a good thing. The problem Strava had was that the functions that most people wanted were available for free and it was just the more hard core stuff that was locked behind a subscription. That’s not the way to make money. You can still see the top 10 on the segments which means if you are close to a KOM you can see where you sit and if you are not close you can at least see the time difference.
As for faked KOMs, you know you can flag them right? I’ve had some of my KOMs flagged and removed for being unrealistic (I was drafting a truck :)). Most “fake” KOMs I’ve seen are obviously due to the rider leaving their bike computer running while they drive their bike home from the MTB park and 99% of the time the rider will fix it themselves by trimming the ride, if they don’t, just flag it (if you care).
I use Strava a lot (walk/hike, run and mainly cycle) and I pay for the subscription since I am such a heavy user. I like segments. Not only to see how I compare to my friends, but to check my own progress over time. My wife also uses Strava but she doesn’t care a bit about segments (she walks and runs more than cycles). She also doesn’t pay for the service since she uses it more to see how far she went.
I believe most of my friends that are avid cyclists and runners also pay for the service.
I’m hoping they can make enough to stick around. I tried many other similar apps, and Strava is the best.
It’s useful to check if you need to change anything in your riding style especially when you’ve just got yourself another N+1, but the weather has so much influence that segments are often just a matter of picking the right day with the wind in your favour.
I live in an area with a lot of wind in the spring and it blows all directions. Some days you fly one way and crawl the other. It does make for some interesting data.
The same is true for a time trial, and that is the purest form of bike racing there is. Show me a good tester, and I’ll show you a good meteorologist - obsessed with the wind.
Segments are great because they’re such a simple idea generated from the ground up, but can be used in a lot of different ways. I think I’m less interested in them now because you get to know all of the trails and big road climbs in your local area. But if I moved somewhere new I think I’d be back looking at them more. Plus they’re a blueprint for the local trail system, for better and for worse.
