Strava Puts Popular 'Year In Sport' Recap Behind an $80 Paywall
- Reference: 0180425637
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/12/19/2158235/strava-puts-popular-year-in-sport-recap-behind-an-80-paywall
- Source link:
> Earlier this month, Strava, the popular fitness-tracking app, released its annual "Year in Sport" wrap-up -- a cutesy, animated series of graphics summarizing each user's athletic achievements. But this year, for the first time, Strava made this feature [1]available only to users with subscriptions ($80 per year) , rather than making it free to everyone, as it had been historically since the review's debut in 2016. This decision has roiled numerous Strava users, particularly those who have relished the app's social encouragement features.
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> One Strava user in India, Shobhit Srivastava, " [2]begged " Strava to "let the plebs see their Year in Sport too, please." He later explained to Ars that having this little animated video is more than just a collection of raw numbers. "When someone makes a video of you and your achievements and tells you that these are the people who stood right behind you, motivated you, cheered for you -- that feeling is of great significance to me!" he said by email.
"Our goal was to give our users ample notice before the personalized Year In Sport was released," said Strava spokesperson Chris Morris. "With the relaunch of our subscription this year, we wanted to clarify the core benefits of Strava -- uploading activities, finding your community, sharing and giving kudos -- remain as accessible as possible."
[1] https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/12/strava-puts-popular-year-in-sport-recap-behind-an-80-paywall/
[2] https://x.com/mushymushymula/status/2001117038769566088
Misleading title (Score:3)
Not the feature costs $80, but the subscription. And the feature is only available for subscribers.
So what? Should people also list their Spotify subscription price as the price for their Spotify wrapped recap?
enshittification notice (Score:2)
To me it would serve as a notice the company has reached their enshittification phase. This means that unless you're willing to pay increasingly more over time (and yes, they will come after the paid subscribers too), it's time to look for a new product.
Join me in saying... (Score:2)
Who gives a shit!
Re: (Score:3)
I'm going to say one thing about this and then I'm out, we shouldn't reward this story with more interaction. Yes, I'm being IRONIC MAN today. It's my turn.
They know exactly what they're doing. (Score:2)
It's not a coincidence. They know exactly what's popular and they are methodically, systematically putting more and more of the most valuable content behind a paywall. Why wouldn't they? All businesses care about is money, after all.
I'm quite glad that I regularly back up all my activities. One day I can upload them to my own all.
FYI, your Garmin only stores 3 months worth of activities so most people will never see their activities again if they walk away from Strava.
Re: (Score:2)
And chasing those short term money gains is exactly why 60-80% of all IPOs fail. They would rather please shareholders who know nothing about the business or how it should be run instead of making smart business decisions. Stock markets are scams and they should die.
And... (Score:2)
...nothing of value was lost.
Re: (Score:2)
This article seems like an ad for a subscription service no one has ever heard of.
[ Yes, the world *does* revolve solely around my own personal experience, thanks for asking! :) ]