At-home workout platform Peloton is partnering with TikTok to share custom fitness content on the social video platform, including live Peloton classes with and without its stationary bike, and original workout series from its instructors, amid sinking shares and falling revenue after a pandemic high.
Peloton is sharing custom fitness content on the video-sharing app, including live classes and workout series. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
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Key Facts
Free custom Peloton content will be available through a new fitness hub on the app called #TikTokFitness Powered by Peloton, and the partnership is the first time Peloton is making its own social content for a partner outside channels it owns, Peloton said.
The short-term goal of the partnership is to reach TikTok’s younger audiences in hopes they will download the Peloton app and become paying members, Oli Snoddy, vice president of consumer marketing at Peloton, told CNBC.
Peloton will partner with TikTok creators and collaborate with celebrities to make content, the company said, and the fitness hub will be available to TikTok users in the U.S., U.K., and Canada.
The partnership also has “a longer-term goal around changing perceptions around who Peloton is,” Snoddy said, adding that one of TikTok’s strengths is reaching younger people.
Peloton said it has millions of members across the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, Australia, and Austria, while TikTok announced in 2021 it reached a billion monthly users.
In August, Peloton shares fell to an all-time low of $5.05—97% below its peak during the height of the pandemic in January 2021—after the company reported a loss in subscribers, and the company’s market cap is now about $2.1 billion, after hitting a $50 billion valuation two years ago.
Key Background
In November, Peloton reported a net loss of $159.3 million for the three-month period up to September 30. The company estimated its fitness subscriptions to be between 2.97 and 2.98 million, which fell short of analysts’ expectations. In May, the company launched a new marketing campaign aiming to reach more customers regardless of age and lifestyle, and introduced tiered membership options, including a free one, CNBC reported. The same month, Peloton recalled 2.2 million of its stationary bikes over a safety issue, leading to a 7% drop in shares, and adding to its already struggling sales since a surge at the start of the pandemic when gyms and workout classes were closed. The company, which was founded in 2012, had previously recalled one of its treadmills in May 2021 after an incident leading to a child’s death. Peloton conducted four rounds of layoffs in 2022, cutting 2,800 jobs in February, 600 jobs in July, 800 jobs in August, and 500 jobs in October. That August, Peloton said it planned to close most of its retail locations, and started listing its workout equipment on Amazon, and making some of its equipment available at Dick’s Sporting Goods. In September 2022, Peloton expanded a rental program for its workout bikes across the nation, after initially making them available at retail stores in Texas, Florida, Minnesota, and Colorado, according to CNBC.
This post originally appeared on Forbes.com
