Freeletics: the application has more than 3 million Brazilian users (Freeletics / Reproduction)
During the social isolation promoted by the new coronavirus pandemic, apps physical exercise have become essential for those who need to exercise without leaving home. THE Freeletics, available to iOS e Android, is an option that is successful in Brazil. About 560,000 Brazilians have installed the app since March 2020.
Powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, the application suggests a range of workouts that are set up specifically for the user, based on some questions that are answered when creating the account.
Who signs up indicates their three main goals — some examples are “increasing endurance”, “relieving stress”, “improving your mental strength” and “losing weight” — and offers some information such as fitness level, weight, height and how you would like to perform the exercises. It’s all the system needs to build a selection of workouts specific to the user’s goals.
“The Freeletics Coach learns from its users around the world, which helps you determine which precise exercises and workouts best match each user’s skills and goals. Over time, it analyzes performance to ensure that the user is continually challenged and progresses, ”says Daniel Sobhani, CEO of Freeletics.
Founded in 2013, Freeletics started in Munich, Germany. Its founders, Joshua Cornelius, Andrej Matijczak and Mehmet Yilma, did not go directly to the digital world, but to the largest park in the city: the Englischer Garten. The three distributed training suggestions printed on paper and invited people to exercise for some time before the app was created in 2014.
As a startup bootstrapped, that is, using its own resources, the company makes profits without any external financing. Today, she has users in more than 175 countries and, in the past few months, the app has doubled the paying subscriber base to over 600,000.
In 2020 alone, more than 11 million new people were registered, reaching 51 million users all around the world — an increase of 27.5%. “When the pandemic came, it only accelerated our growth process. We already understood that we could help people train anywhere, ”says Augusto Santos, global art director at Freeletics.
A Latin America, especially Brazil, is a market with enormous potential for the company. Today, there are more than 3 million Brazilian users registered and around 560,000 entered since the arrival of the coronavirus in the country, in March 2020. The average age of Brazilians in the application is 27 years and the most popular goals among them, according to information from Freeletics, are to burn fat, gain muscle and improve overall fitness.
Comparing installation numbers in January — most important month for exercise apps, according to Santos —, Freeletics stands out alongside its global competitors. According to data from the SensorTower, the application received 1,300,000 installations, while the Adidas Training it’s the Nike Training Club, similar apps in their offering of exercise routines, were left with 800,000 each.
“Despite being a digital community, millions of users connect, motivate and support each other and are offline for group exercises,” says Sobhani. Now, with social isolation, new adaptation options have been implemented to shorten sessions or do training that needs little space.
“Since the beginning ofrentena, we saw a higher level of user activity, with exercises without equipment being the favorites. We also saw an increase in the time users spent on their sessions, reflecting the increase in the time available for these types of activities ”, says the CEO.
