Finding people who share your active passion (hiking, biking, running, whatever) is a pretty persistent problem. Existing friends and family won't always participate in the same sporting activities as you, and making new friends at the gym or on the mountain can be a little awkward. The same goes for trying your luck in random Facebook or WhatsApp groups. A step forward Vivacitya Spanish startup that creates a community app around shared sporting passions.
The freemium app, which was showcased this week at 4YFN during the MWC show, allows users to set up a profile to find other people with the same activity interests.
There is a chat feature and the ability for users to set up events that other users can sign up to join. It also includes a source of organized events (not by users), aimed at learning and improvement in different sports, such as running clubs, street yoga, calisthenics sessions, etc. These can include paid events, giving the startup a route to earning commissions. It also plans to monetize through a premium version of the app, with additional features for subscribers.
Helping users connect with qualified sports trainers is another design goal of the app.
Founder and CEO Marco Savino said he came up with the idea because he was interested in finding people to go on hikes with and wasn't impressed with other meeting apps (including veteran player in this space, Meetup), and saw a void. for an application. dedicated to athletes. “The main idea of the app is that people can create plans together,” he told us. “For example, I want to go to the beach tomorrow and run, so you can post your plan and people can join.”
The app launched almost a year ago, but received a major update last summer. “We started in August of last year to improve the app and get all the feedback,” Savino said. “We have, mainly here in Spain, a total of about 2,300 users. In the last three months people really started using the app, making plans and creating events.”
Users range in age from young to middle-aged. There is also a great mix of sporting interests (and users can tag one or more interests), but it suggests that running is currently the most popular.
“We just tried to make the app as simple as possible so people understand it and know how to use it,” he added. “If you go and look at all the plans, you can see people talking and having some meetings, so it's really nice to see people starting to understand the app and use it.”
With mainstream social media feeling increasingly broken as a tool of human connection, there could be an opportunity for niche social networks like this to quietly come together and build traction by creating more welcoming, community-minded spaces focused on shared interests. Fitness tracking app Strava has certainly become more active on the social media front.
Hurling insults in online culture wars is not a fun pastime for most people. Why not tune out the sound and fury of X et al and go for a smaller network that could really help expand your social circle?
