In 2006, they came up with the idea for a social network for athletes, with “athlete” meaning anyone who took fitness seriously.

By then, technology had progressed enough for people to carry GPS devices in their pockets, and strap on lightweight heart monitors.

They targeted what they called “avids” – cyclists who rode frequently

From the beginning, the big hook was the leaderboard, a ranking of anyone who has cycled a particular route. This was not unique, but was borrowed from online gaming. The difference was that this scoreboard was linked to real-world physical activity.

Strava offered the competitive draw of segments and the gratification of kudos.

Strava’s ace was to combine the competitive appeal of the segment with a community of likeminded people who knew how much it meant to come back from injury or miss a personal best.

The first Strava user was David Belden, a cyclist from California. (He is still on Strava and, in 2019, he covered 1,455.8 miles and climbed almost 40,000 metres.) For the first years, the main users of Strava looked similar to Belden, in that most of them were male and on a bike.

Strava’s annual report of stats suggests that still men make up 75% of users. Women’s most popular activity is running; men still prefer cycling.

Since others can look at their routes, athletes have started making Strava performance art – riding or running a route that, once mapped, becomes an image or message.

More important is building goodwill in the community.

Strava users may start as loners, only tracking their own activities, but the hope is that they will soon be hooked into tracking friends and peers, and that this will push them to go further and faster.

Over 80% of Strava’s users are outside the US, and Brazil is now its second biggest national market after the US. It is also big in the rest of Europe and getting big enough in Japan to have a country representative there.

Brazilians are social, and they also love sport, making Brazil a perfect society for Strava (they also like to work out with their family, unlike any other country). The French are equally into running and cycling; Germans prefer bikes.

From Strava data, the media concluded that the second week in January is “quitters’ week”, when newly active users give up (although women will last two days longer than men).

There are a few options for Strava to make money: becoming a subscription-only service, selling up, selling its users to advertisers, or selling more data than it does currently

The company says its currency is effort, but it is also largely goodwill.