PPB December 2020

Fit And Fine From A Distance S pending more time at home and indoors has not stood in the way of consumers across the globe who are looking to lead healthy, active lifestyles. Like many other industries, the fitness industry also saw a notable shift during the pandemic, with an upsurge in the number of users who are accessing at-home workout programs via the internet or streaming on-demand fitness classes via smartphone apps. With fitness centers being one of the last types of business to reopen to the public this year, consumers have had evenmore incentive to start pumping iron in virtual classes at home. According to “Global Mobile Consumer Trends 2020,” a report by customer engagement platformMoEngage and mobile app intelligence company Apptopia, health and fitness app downloads by new users worldwide increased 46 percent between the first and second quarters of 2020. Leading with a 156-percent increase was India—a statistic that correlates with the country’s major lockdown that kept 1.3 billion people at home—followed by a 55-percent increase in new users in MENA (Middle East and North Africa), a 47-percent increase in the Asia- Pacific region, a 25-percent increase in Europe, a 21-percent increase in North America and in South America, and a 43-percent increase in the rest of the world, representing a pool of 1.5 billion mobile app users. Coupled with the increase by Danielle Renda End users may have been spending more time at home this year, but that hasn’t kept them from pursuing their health and fitness goals virtually—and wanting to look good doing it. F i t ness Appa r e l Arsenii Palivoda / Shutterstock.com. 26 | DECEMBER 2020 | INNOVATE