Black wallnut 

Strava makes yet another poor business decision. Price increase effective 2-26-2023 monthly subscription increases from $7.99 to $11.99. A 50% increase. Just a couple of years ago they were shining publicly that if subscriptions didn't increase they would be gone. Such a drastic price increase in the midst of a recession for something that is discretionary spending for most IMHO is unlikely to give them much of a net gain in proceeds.

I'm ending my subscription. Wonder how many others will as well.

Troul 

many might "ride" it out until the weather breaks, & by then, forget about the automatic drafting of the increased monthly fee. Might be a tactic that the business is trying to offset for a likely reoccurring yearly slump in sales... Time for a new brand to roll in to the cyber bicycling world, robbing customers from the hotshot brand.

genejockey 

3.5% unemployment and 2.6% annual GDP growth isn't even remotely a "recession".

stevel610 

Recession, if not happening yet, is baked into the equation for this year. I don't really care, just a better buying environment for those of us long term investors.

That said, when recessions happen people will often keep lower cost pleasures rather than higher priced items.

From Stravas perspective they probably figure raise the price 50%, lose 20% of customers will pay off in the end.

Black wallnut 

Instead of picking nits try to articulate justification for the huge percent increase. Do electrons cost more? Have they had substantial increased costs associated with rewriting code? Price increases are a way of life. 50% increases are not.

I think Troul in probably right though. Many will look at this as such a small dollar value cost that the percent of increase will not matter to them. They sure as hell whine when eggs jump in price.... Said with due smugness from my Ranchette where I raise my own chickens for all they provide and pork.

genejockey 

Exactly. They're running a business, not a charity.

genejockey 

They're not making enough money.

spelger

not sure how they make any money. i am not a paying user and don't recall any advertising on it.

Troul 

if the business needs to jack up the cost that much to make enough money, that tells me the business has some internal operating flaws, too many bad modus operandi decisions, poorly managing money in general.

Nothing is "free".

3alarmer 

.
...I guess we have passed the age of peak Strava. Can't say I will notice much difference. I never held any KOM's.

3alarmer 

.
...if they take a tip from Elon Musk, they can turn it into a cash cow by selling KOM's, the way Twitter is selling verified accounts.

msu2001la

It's $4/mo more. It's mildly annoying, but I don't think there's going to be a mass exodus from Strava over this.
In the context of cycling expenditures, this is extremely minor.

spelger

i did, once for a few days. when i was out in FL i rented a ride and got a KOM heading on a flat road. i'ts hilly around here in Reno so flat was easy. the KOM was easy to get and actually did not even know it was a segment until ride was done. the guy i took it from did not take long to get it back. i don't consider it a real KOM though since it only went up maybe a foot or two at most.

genejockey 

They're suffering the same thing that happens to any number of companies that start out free, "to build a user base", but then reach the point where they need to bring in money. Many a company has run aground on those rocks.

Mtracer

It’s my understanding they hadn’t raised their rate in over a decade. Also, it a much more modest price increase for a yearly subscription. I think mine will be going from $60 to $80. Still a 25% jump.

I think the larger increase for monthly is to encourage people to just get an annual subscription. And I honestly can’t see why anyone does a monthly subscription.

As for Strava’s business decision, the bottom line is none of us know squat about their operation. They have a huge number of users and likely have a good idea what pricing will work best for them. Of course, they could get it wrong. Remember “New Coke”. But if they screw-in up, they can readjust their pricing.

My $20 more a year is trivial.

Troul 

the additional cost to the customer could mean giving up the wax, & going back to using grease on there chain. Can't be having that!!111!

_ForceD_

If they end things and do in fact go under…if I’m mid-ride will they automatically pause it for me?

Dan

tempocyclist

I was under the impression they weren't turning a profit, but who knows for sure. Subscriptions would be their biggest income source.

No "direct" advertising but the challenges are essentially thinly-veiled adverts. They do bring in a fair bit of cash via their third-party challenges. It costs a packet to host one.

Here's some information I dug up:

- Strava generated $167 million revenue in 2021
- In January 2022, Strava had around 95 million active users
- Almost two billion activities were completed on Strava in 2021
- In December 2020, Strava was valued at $1.5 billion


I think my annual subscription is "only" going up by around 10% at the next renewal. Varies a lot depending on country and when you paid last.

tempocyclist

UPDATE: Just checked. My annual subscription is going up from AU $81.99 to AU $99.99 when it renews in around 3 months time.

Koyote

Looks like the annual subscription is increasing to $79.99 per year, which is $6.66 per month. Why would anyone be paying on a monthly basis?

veganbikes

$4? That is almost $96 away from a hundred dollars and multiply a hundred 10 times and that is a thousand! Holy Moly a lot of money.

Prices are going up it happens. I probably wouldn't leave over $4 and certainly don't know that I would want an ad service but then again you could just make it like a traditional race and sell ad space on barricades and jerseys and such and would be maybe annoying a little but not totally obtrusive?

base2 

Just cancelled mine.
Maybe I'm a cheapskate but the fitness freshness graph is the only feature of actual value to me...& I know how I feel on a particular day. ​​​

The pricing ker-fuffel is as a valid excuse as any to take action. ​Honestly, the last 2 years it's renewed automatically & I had forgot about it until the notification email that a renewal had happened. I've never bothered to fight it.

"Yay, fitness friend! You rode your bike to the bus stop or walked to the mailbox! Hooray! Kudos for you! Oooohhh, aaaaaaahhh." Pbbbbth.

It probably doesn't help that I'm a social media cave-man who thinks MySpace circa 2003-2005 was the high-water mark for the industry.

mstateglfr 

it's been mentioned in the thread, but is worth repeating-

- Just buy the yearly subscription. The increase is much smaller and Sttava even said they want to osh people away from monthly.

- the price hasn't increased in years. Like years and years and years. At what point is a company allowed to increase prices?

mschwett 

never, because people on the internet in completely different lines of work know everything about strava’s business/costs/etc better than strava.

sure, they’ll lose some subscribers. more will stay, some will switch to annual, they’ll have a more consistent revenue stream. and most of the ones who don’t pay will probably still be on the platform contributing to the critical social mass, KOMs and etc.

Eric F 

Agreed. This is simple economics.

For me, the value of the app/network features is easily worth it to me. Hell, I can’t remember the last time I paid less than $7 for a weekday lunch.