Sweatcoin · B2C · app that pays you to walk
Make a fitness app look like a finance app, with a name people react to
Press picked it up; first 30-40K users
Workedpositioning-nichepr-launch
What they did
Deliberately avoided looking like a fitness app: a wallet, a marketplace, techy generative graphics and a nod to the emerging crypto scene, making it the only financial-looking app in health and fitness. Dropped the working title FitCoin as too cozy for the more polarizing Sweatcoin. Launched in 2016, just before the 2017 ICO boom.
What happened
Created buzz; press and media covered the story and brought the first 30-40K users. Timing with the crypto boom also helped.
- Stage
- launch
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How to Turn Gamification Into a Retention Powerhouse — Anton Derlyatka, Sweatcoin“So the look and feel was much more of a financial app, where you had the kind of the wallet, and you had a marketplace.”
“Our original working title was FitCoin. And then we thought it wasn't Like, it was too cozy, almost like meaningless. We needed something a bit more polarizing.”
“we launched, and then, you know, the press, the media picked up on the story because it was fun, lots of people wrote about us. We got our first initial whatever, 30,000, 40,000 users, which was great, amazing.”
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More from this episode
- Sweatcoin: Pay users 1 coin per 1,000 walked steps, spendable in a rewards shopRetention far above other fitness apps early on; users walk ~20% more
- Sweatcoin: Show two ways to earn on the home screen: walk, or invite a friend for 5 coinsNew users went from under 300 a day to 300, 1,000, then 5,000 a day
- Sweatcoin: Offer a few donated brand products a day, with a new one every daySolved cold start; brands later queued for months to be featured
- Sweatcoin: Pay 1 coin for watching an optional video ad, up to 1-3 times a dayRetention and engagement rose at 1-3 views a day; fell when more were allowed
- Sweatcoin: Let users swap coins for 3 free months of Spotify or Apple MusicFounder says users loved it; instant rewards with no shipping delay
- Sweatcoin: Unlock a secret prize shop after 30 successful invites, for creators with small followingsSpread 'like wildfire'; about 5% of all users came this way
- Sweatcoin: Kick off spikes with friendly creators, then let fast invite chains push store rankings#1 app in the US, Brazil and 65 other countries; now stable growth
- Sweatcoin: Build free-tier limits in early, then sell a plan that lifts them and removes adsBasic plan already makes 'considerable' revenue; founder thinks it came 12-18 months late
- Sweatcoin: Let a health service fund extra prizes to keep diabetes program patients engagedProgram completion rose from ~25% to 89%; activity +45% vs +20% on free app