This right here is exactly right. Zwift and all the other platforms are in an incredibly niche segment of the overall fitness industry which is itself enormous. These platforms, TR included, are almost exclusively designed for people who want to race, whether they are marketed as such or not. That, to me, is where their success or failure will lie. The fact that the industry seems unable to really support more than one “big” company at a time seems to suggest this is true. They’re all fighting over a relatively small portion of the market.
E-sports is probably not only here to stay, but to continue growing.
Trying to compete in the general fitness market is insane to me, but I’m just a guy who races bikes so what do I know.
I have no interest in racing at all. I just want to be generally and enjoy riding my bike in beautiful scenery like the Alpes and indoor cycling is a way to train when outside conditions are not optimal (due to weather, road safety etc)
And I would say most Zwifters are on Zwift much for the same reasons even when they do race in the BCD categories. They probably do it because they think they are getting fit
Indeed. I think the discussion is really around what is next, not what they are already successful at. There’s practically 0 growth potential (obviously) without addressing new market segments, even if those segments are existing cyclists that have not yet taking to indoor training.
My point above on triathlete v cyclist numbers was not really about numbers per se, more the type of rider that is not well addressed in the virtual space. IMO the software experience of executing workouts has not really changed in the last decade. The only difference is that an avatar riders around a virtual world in the background whilst you execute the intervals, and the terrain is completely irrelevant. You can still do it if you don’t see the virtual world at all, it offers nothing. There’s a huge opportunity to gamify workouts for someone to nail.
Yeah plenty of fun online cycling games could be thought of, like something mario kart style or even a phantasy polo/rollerball/speedball inspired game.
I hate direct drive trainers btw, rollers offer a much better indoor experience but they could be improved even further
I think the fundamental flaw in the Escape Collective article is right at the start: the definition of “indoor cycling”. It completely misses spin classes, either in dedicated spin gyms like Peloton / Soul Cycle, or at more general fitness gyms. These need to be included if you are talking about the universe of “indoor cycling”, so the Escape Collective article is really more about dividing the pie so more of it is fits into the Escape Collective demographic than really looking at expanding the pie.
