Flurry is a company that helps business tap mobile markets through apps and ads. As a result, they have access to a lot of data. Recently, they mined this data to look for trends in the health and fitness category. After all, this is one area that has been pegged to drive growth in mobile technology. As they report in a post on their website, they came up with some interesting analysis.
For example, their data reveals that a 62% increase in the use of iPhone and iPad applications in the health and fitness category for just the first half of this year. This compares with just a 33% growth for mobile apps in general. Now, it’s possible that some of this gain might be due to starting with a low level of use, but the segment did post a 49% increase for all of 2013 (compared with a whopping 115% for mobile apps in general), so they weren’t starting from zero. And there were 6,800 different apps in the health and fitness category so it’s not as though it’s a tiny field.
The number that caught my eye, however, was the ratio of men to women who spend more than three times as much time using health and fitness apps than the average mobile user. Flurry labels this group “Fitness Fanatics” and you may be surprised to learn that 62% — nearly two out of every three — are women! What’s more, women are generally in the minority as mobile consumers; 52% overall are male.
The take-away is that women apparently are more focused or more serious about using technology for health and fitness activities. So anyone looking to appeal to this market will be wise to keep the ladies in mind when they put together their marketing message.
