Intelligent hardware + data service, iGPSPORT provides scientific sports indicators for cycling enthusiasts

【)Wuhan】1Month 17Daily report (text/Qian Jiaxin)

Cycling all the way, just for more beautiful scenery.

In recent years, cycling has been growing in popularity around the world and is becoming more and more popular. A healthy body and a happy mood are what many people, especially office workers, pursue. On the weekend, make an appointment with a few friends, decide on the destination, get on the bike and start a 100-kilometer journey.

In 2017, the National Fitness Plan issued by the State Council mentioned that it encourages the development of new national fitness formats such as fitness information aggregation, intelligent fitness hardware, and online fitness training and education. Make full use of "Internet +" and other technologies to open up the manufacturing field and consumer market for national fitness products, so that the proportion of sports consumption in residents' consumption expenditures will continue to increase.

recently,) interviewed iGPSPORT founder Yang Xiaoqing. He said, "No data, no exercise." As a cycling enthusiast with 10 years of riding experience, Yang Xiaoqing discovered during his exercise that he wanted to understand and collect his own cycling data. But how to better collect and utilize it is the reason why he established iGPSPORT.

"Everyone who does data knows the importance of data, and in the field of sports and health, the way to obtain data is more important at this stage." Yang Xiaoqing said that data obtained through mobile apps are limited by their own factors and cannot overcome the data issues of accuracy, richness and user experience. Collecting data through smart hardware will be an important entrance. iGPSPORT adopts an overall solution of smart hardware plus data services.

Health management is a common demand of cycling enthusiasts in my country, and the same is true for Yang Xiaoqing. In 2004, he graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and became a product manager at Huawei. From then on, he began to travel around the country and abroad. In 2012, he quit his job and returned to Wuhan, where he and two college classmates started riding with the club, making appointments every three or two days, and could ride 80 to 100 kilometers each time.

While riding a bicycle, Yang Xiaoqing wanted to record his riding data, but found that he could only buy foreign watch equipment at that time, and the price was relatively expensive. A watch cost 1,500 yuan. He wondered, could he make a more cost-effective computer?

He just went ahead and his college classmate who was riding with him at the time became his partner. The head of hardware, Geng Yuyin, is an expert in the field of hardware, especially in the field of GPS. Another partner, Chen Kun, graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology with a master's degree and later served as the project software leader. The team started with 8 people and now has grown to nearly 40 people, roughly divided into three departments: R&D, marketing and supply chain. Most of them are enthusiasts of outdoor sports such as cycling and triathlon.

In terms of data recording, GPS car watches are the most advantageous products at this stage, including GPS track, speed, altitude and slope data, which can be said to be comprehensive and accurate. iGPSPORT's first product is a GPS car watch, which Yang Xiaoqing's team spent a year developing and launched in early 2014.

At present, iGPSPORT has launched a series of GPS car watches and sensors for speed, cadence, heart rate, etc. covering entry-level, intermediate to professional levels. The car watches are priced between 299 yuan and 799 yuan. iGPSPORT's smart products have completed the third iteration and can now monitor and record 80 items of data such as users' physical status, exercise status and environmental status.

Regarding the technical solution, Yang Xiaoqing said that iGPSPORT is guided by customer needs when designing, retains core needs, maximizes core functions, and optimizes costs at the same time, allowing more riders to meet the best needs at the best price. core needs. The retail price of high-end professional-grade products is 799 yuan, which can meet the detection needs of professional riders such as heart rate and power. iGPSPORT’s professional-grade products are used by many UCI-registered intercontinental teams, such as the William Team in the 2017 Giro d’Italia.

Currently, iGPSPORT generates revenue through smart hardware sales. Yang Xiaoqing said that improving the user experience of smart hardware is what we have been doing, but helping users do data analysis and building a good data service platform is our end point.

Yang Xiaoqing introduced that users upload data to the cloud platform through Bluetooth or USB. At this stage, we can do data display, statistics and analysis. Specifically, we can provide data collection, monitoring and warning functions. “For example, when a user exercises too much and detects that the heart rate is no longer within the set range, our hardware will issue a warning.”

As a data analysis platform, iGPSPORT provides App and website services. Its users are mainly targeted at sports enthusiasts. It currently has more than 200,000 registered users, and the number of domestic and foreign users is basically the same.

In 2017, iGPSPORT’s product sales reached 100,000 units. Like the number of users, half of iGPSPORT’s sales also come from overseas.

Cycling is becoming more and more common in our country, but it is still a new fitness sport. The average daily riding time of cyclists in our country does not exceed 2 hours. Compared with developed countries, there is still a big gap. "It can be clearly seen that foreign countries have high recognition of similar products, and the market space is larger and more mature."

Yang Xiaoqing said that a foreign cycling app has millions of users and charges an annual fee of US$59. It is more difficult to provide membership services in China. The current model is basically monetized through traffic. In the future, we will provide more advanced membership services for foreign users, such as providing training courses and guidance, providing live broadcast of event data, etc.

"The sports service industry is in a period of change, and some traditional companies actually have some difficulties in updating hardware. In the data service industry, domestic App and website data services are more mature and the user experience is better." Yang Xiaoqing said, this is what we Advantages of making products. In the domestic market, iGPSPORT has achieved certain advantages in the field of cycling, but the overall domestic cycling market is still in the early development stage. The focus of iGPSPORT in the next few years will be the European and American markets.

iGPSPORT's products have been exported overseas for more than a year, and their products are exported in batches to more than 10 major developed countries and regions such as Europe, America and Southeast Asia. Starting this year, sales will focus on countries such as the United States.

Reports show that road running, exercise cycling, fitness training, outdoor, swimming and other events have become popular fashionable sports in China. iGPSPORT is also paying attention to other sports markets. The next R&D product is positioned in the gym market. It will develop a new photoelectric heart rate detection device for the gym market, focusing on wearing comfort and data accuracy.

This week, iGPSPORT will release a new product iGS618. "Only localization can be considered true internationalization. The internationalization of iGPSPORT is already changing to localization: providing localized language support and services, and even developing locally designed products in the next step. For example, in Spain, it is very Obviously their native language will be better than English." This product has been developed to support 12 languages around the world, and has been optimized in terms of professional functions, system optimization speed, computing power and storage space.

It is reported that iGPSPORT received angel investment led by Wuhan East Lake Zhonghe Angel in December 2015, and received angel investment led by Beijing Eagle Fund in August 2016. Currently, iGPSPORT is seeking Pre-A round of financing, which will be mainly used for product research and development and developing international markets.

Project: IGPSPORT
Company: Wuhan Qiwu Technology Co., Ltd.
URL:www.igpsport.com