Healthcare and Fitness Apps, Also Known As Mhealth Apps
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Table of Contents 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 2 2. Health and Fitness App Market ......................................................................................... 3 2.1 Global Overview ......................................................................................................... 4 2.2 Investments ................................................................................................................ 4 2.3 mHealth App Publishers ............................................................................................. 5 2.4 Monetization of mHealth Apps .................................................................................... 7 2.5 Usage Patterns .......................................................................................................... 8 3. Health & Fitness App Categories ...................................................................................... 8 3.1 Workout and Weight Loss ........................................................................................... 9 3.2 Self- tracking and Monitoring ......................................................................................10 3.3 Studio & Fitness .........................................................................................................11 3.4 Nutrition .....................................................................................................................12 3.5 Healthcare..................................................................................................................12 3.6 Meditation and Mental Health .....................................................................................13 4. Top Healthcare & Fitness Apps .......................................................................................14 5. Developing a Healthcare & Fitness App...........................................................................19 5.1 Customer Segmentation.............................................................................................20 5.2 Need Analysis ............................................................................................................20 5.3 Competitor Analysis ...................................................................................................21 5.4 Some Common Functionalities of MHealth Apps........................................................21 5.5 How much does it cost to build a Healthcare and Fitness App? .................................23 6. Future Trends.....................................................................................................................24 7. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................26 www.redbytes.in 1 1. Introduction The number of fitness and health enthusiasts is growing day by day. Today you can see rising interest in fitness on social media and even around you. It is not just the athletes who take keen interest in training goals and diet plans; it is the common public that is taking up health and disease prevention activity with a goal for healthy and active lifestyle. Yet, it is puzzling to see this peak in health goals alongside growing obesity, hypertension and other lifestyle diseases in the world. Perhaps it is these lifestyle diseases that have brought health and fitness to the forefront. Amalgamation of health and technology was started as far back as in the 1960s. However introduction of mobile apps to health and fitness has given the public an accessible way to work on their fitness and monitor health. www.redbytes.in 2 In this insight we will be looking at mobile healthcare and fitness apps, also known as mHealth apps. Today, there are more than 340,000 health and fitness apps on the leading app stores with more than 200 being added daily! These applications serve a variety of purposes from health monitoring to diet and weight loss. We will look at the mHealth app categories and the top 10 mobile applications in the world of health and fitness. But first let's get a bird’s eye view of the market. 2. Health and Fitness App Market According to Statista, the global mHealth market valuation reached 44.44 billion in 2019. A growing demand for fitness services and keen investor interest is luring entrepreneurs to launch health and fitness apps despite high competition. Digital healthcare like wearable technology, mHealth apps and health monitoring devices are attracting billions of dollars in investments. In 2018 investments in digital healthcare stood at USD 9.5 billion, with mobile apps as the second highest category invested in. Although 340,000 apps seem like a lot of competition, the reality is that more than half of them are dead apps with no update since one year or more. Many of these are also internal apps used for hospitals and research centres so they are not a direct competition to new businesses targeting the retail market. www.redbytes.in 3 2.1 Global Overview Although most leading app publishers are based out of the USA, the majority of app usage growth is coming from the APAC market. Emerging markets of China and Japan boast a heavy usage of mHealth apps and are leading the global usage. In fact APAC accounts for 64% of app downloads while the American continent has only 17% of the share. As lifestyle diseases catch in the APAC region, the huge population of this region will fuel future growth of mHealth apps globally. Even though the USA lags behind in app downloads, it holds the leader position in app development. Most of the globally popular apps are published by American companies and they set the standards for app functionality globally. 2.2 Investments As you will notice in the Top Apps section below, money has been flowing in the health and fitness app industry. Sports apparel brand Under Armor has bought mHealth app MyFitnessPal for a whopping USD 457 million in 2015. Similarly big brands and technology companies like Nike, Adidas, Samsung Next and NB Ventures are ready to invest in these apps. The unique thing about mHealth app market is that investors are from different industries and ready to invest at different stages of start-up. It is not just the healthcare www.redbytes.in 4 and technology companies that are ready to invest; even sports associations, highly paid technology executives and business conglomerates are eager to get a share of this market. An example is activity tracking company Whoop, which has raised USD 25 million in funding from NFL players Association, Durant Company and Twitter executive Jack Dorsey among others. With the increasing investor interest, the healthcare and fitness app market is a rewarding option for an entrepreneur. Seed companies and early stage venture capitalists are ready to back fitness apps that have a little traction and show promising returns. There are health and fitness start-up accelerators like Rock Health and Infuse Digital Health that provide funding and discounted resources to support technology start-ups in the health space. Most of them are based in America. However start-ups from all over the world can apply for support and funding with these accelerators. 2.3 mHealth App Publishers www.redbytes.in 5 Most of the companies owning mHealth apps are not healthcare companies but technology companies who want a share of the digital healthcare market. The major players are - ● Traditional healthcare players like hospitals, health insurers and pharmaceutical companies hold 32% of the market ● Pure digital healthcare companies which focus only on digital health services hold 28% of the market. ● Surprisingly, technology and app development companies who have no previous experience in healthcare command 23% of the market. ● Remaining market share of 11% belongs to NGOs, Universities and standalone health and fitness professionals. Also invested in health and fitness apps are big sports and fitness brands who want to gain mindshare of their retail customers. Sports apparel brands like Adidas, Nike, and Under Armour have acquired fitness apps to stay relevant to millennials. Under Armour, an American fitness apparel company acquired MapMyFitness for USD 150 million in 2013. MapMyFitness owns health monitoring apps that will increase user engagement with Under Armour and also provide valuable user data to the company. As you can see investments are pouring into the Healthcare and fitness app market from a variety of sources. For an entrepreneur who is looking for resources to launch or expand the reach of mHealth app, there is no dearth of options. www.redbytes.in 6 2.4 Monetization of mHealth Apps The good news is that people are ready to spend on health and fitness. Nearly two out of three Americans set weight loss and fitness as their New Year resolution every year. The story is the same in other regions of the world too. A healthy life is a priority for every human and hence health and fitness will always command a significant share of wallet. In 2018, the average American iPhone user had an average spend of USD 2.7 on health and fitness apps which was a 75% growth over previous year spending. In 2017, revenue from health apps reached USD 2.1 billion and is expected to cross USD 11 billion by 2026. There are a variety of ways to monetize your health and fitness app. The average price of health and fitness apps in Google play store and Apple app store is US$ 3 and $3.5 respectively. However,