综合一区欧美国产,99国产麻豆免费精品,九九精品黄色录像,亚洲激情青青草,久久亚洲熟妇熟,中文字幕av在线播放,国产一区二区卡,九九久久国产精品,久久精品视频免费

Business / Technology

Sports-themed apps cash in on people's desire to keep fit

By Ma Si (China Daily) Updated: 2016-01-21 07:57

Sports-themed apps cash in on people's desire to keep fit

The Codoon app shows the distance its user has walked in 76.4 hours. [Photo/Provided to China Daily]

Xiao Liang, a 28-year-old engineer, celebrated the New Year by competing in a marathon. Well, sort of. Instead of flying to Xiamen, an eastern port city in Fujian province where the event was held, he attended the marathon's "online version" in Beijing, by making use of Codoon, an app for hand-held devices.

Wearing a smartwatch equipped with Codoon, Xiao started running at the same time as the runners in Xiamen. Codoon kept track of his running route and time using GPS technology.

"The app obviated the need for me to travel to Xiamen and offers a cost-efficient way to access marathon events," he said.

When he reached the finish line, so to speak, the preset app reported the results to the event's authorized online organizing committee, which later awarded him a medal. "Though the medal is not the same one offered to offline runners, it is also of considerable meaning," he said.

Xiao was one of 120,000 registered runners who had planned to used Codoon to attend the "online version" of Xiamen marathon on Jan 2.

Running is in, and the latest fashion is sweeping China. According to data from the Chinese Athletics Association, more than 80 new marathon competitions have registered in 2015, taking their total number to more than 130 from 51 in 2014.

This has spawned a wealth of mobile apps like Codoon, which are scrambling to tap into people's desire to stay fit and healthy.

A quick search for yundong, Chinese for sports, yields links to more than 4,700 apps on Apple Inc's app store. "The past year has seen an explosion of sports-themed apps, partly stimulated by the government's policy," said Guo Yang, an analyst at Beijing-based Internet consultancy Analysys International.

He was referring to the document released in December 2014 by the State Council, China's cabinet, calling for more rapid development of the sports industry in China. "Since then, both startups and Internet giants are making inroads into the sports sector," Guo said.

Currently, sports-themed apps cover a wide range of niches. Apps like Codoon facilitate running, while online sites help users to book badminton courts. Then there are apps that offer slimming and bodybuilding courses. And, of course, apps for sports-based social networking too.

But, these apps are used less frequently than expected, according to a report by Chengdu-based Big Data Research Center.

In August, running apps ledongli.cn and Codoon, and slimming app ss.xikang.com, emerged the top three among sports apps. Yet, they have only 2.2 million, 1.6 million and 1.5 million regular users per month, respectively, it said.

"These apps offer services that are too similar and basic to differentiate themselves from each other," Guo at Analysys International said. "More value-added and diversified services are needed to cash in on the exercise boom in China."

Hot Topics

Editor's Picks
...
甘肃省| 吉木萨尔县| 彝良县| 江阴市| 白银市| 三明市| 五大连池市| 个旧市| 新安县| 睢宁县| 布尔津县| 双柏县| 安泽县| 定兴县| 衡山县| 吐鲁番市| 巢湖市| 吴川市| 昭觉县| 苗栗县| 凤山市| 长寿区| 新邵县| 青冈县| 柳河县| 民勤县| 南靖县| 新源县| 兴山县| 乌什县| 泗水县| 隆回县| 汶川县| 嘉峪关市| 辽宁省| 大荔县| 大兴区| 太白县| 海口市| 木兰县| 托克逊县|