Consumer Staples Author：Qasim Khan Mar 01, 2019 02:13 PM (GMT+8)

Keep is trying to get into the hardware game and wants to take a step outside of China. Peloton a product of silicon valley has been out there for quite a long time and is already a unicorn.

keepland work out space. PHOTO: Credit to keep

Keep a brand founded in 2014 is taking huge steps. Can Keep become the Peloton of China?

Keep lists 2019 new hardware layout for home scenarios, access to commercial equipment and healthy food products at CES 2019.

At the beginning not even Wang Ning, the founder of Keep, expected an online content-based mobile App to expand its business in just 4 years and be valued at USD 850 million after its series D funding in July 2018.

Keep has more than 160 million registered users so far. Their business covers areas such as online content, offline fitness studio "KeepLand", e-commerce, smart hardware, and fitness content services.

As for now Keep has showcased five KeepKit products at CES 2019: in addition to the treadmill and body fat scale which were launched in CES 2018. There are also 3 new items that have not been released yet: smart bikes, smart treadmills and smart sports bracelets. These products are expected to be available at the stores in March 2019, though the prices are not announced yet.

In addition, Keep showcased the smart module concept "KeepLink", which is like a chip, it can connect all kinds of adaptive sports equipment. 

KeepLink will allow a large number of sports devices on the market to access the Keep app courses. For example, when users enter the gym, they will be able to use the Keep courses on the treadmill. 

Keep's next move seems to be taking a step outside of China. In fact, Keep has already started to move overseas. Its app has online courses in 18 different languages with more than 10 million users abroad and the hardware products are up to international standards. One of the main reasons to participate in CES was to test the overseas market, suppliers and channels.

Can keep become the Peloton of China?

To judge that lets first take a tour into Pelotons world.

The company was founded in Silicon Valley back in 2012 to provide products, course content and services. Pelotons products include smart cycles and smart treadmills, which cost USD 2,245 and USD 4,295 respectively. After purchasing the equipment, users can get a mass online fitness course for USD 39/month, and equipment can also monitor the user's exercise performance data and realtime charts according to which the trainer can give timely feedback.

For this very reason, Peloton has grown rapidly into becoming a unicorn in just 5 years. The company's subscription, equipment and retail sales have reached USD 700 million, after completing a USD 550 million F round of financing in august last year which valued the company at USD 4 billion.

Over the past 4 years, keep has accumulated more than 2.2 billion user behavior data and found the demand of hardware, the company has the determination of making products and will be launching them at CES 2019.

Based on big market environment, keep has a very different position from peloton in terms of products: pelotons products are lean and expensive and is considered to be the "apple" of fitness equipment. Whereas keep products are very affordable; yoga mats, kneepads, gloves, training belts and so on are all with CNY100.

What Peloton doest have is the offline gyms. Early in 2018, Keep opened an offline fitness center and named it KeepLand. Having 100 million offline users it was a great move. KeepLand started with seven classes on every workday and 9 classes on weekends. Prior to the class students have to make an appointment on the Keep app to avoid classes getting too congested and each class costs from RMB 26 to RMB 80. Other than classes like Zumba and Les Mills Keepland also offers a self-developed MIXT class which lasts 45 minutes. MIXT is circuit training combined with strengths and dimensions exercise class.