The Present Situation and Future Prospect of Online Fitness in the Post-Epidemic Era
Authors: Xiao Tang , Lu YongKang 
Published: February 2023

After the COVID-19 epidemic broke out around the world, large-scale home isolations have restricted the activities of ordinary residents. Therefore, online activities have become more frequent and online fitness have ushered in a new round of large-scale rise. The concept of national fitness has gradually rooted in the hearts of the people. The 14th five-year Plan of the people's Republic of China for National Economic and Social Development and the outline of long-term goals for 2035 further make it clear that it is necessary to create new advantages in the digital economy and promote the digital transformation of the industry. Under the background of the epidemic, the online fitness industry promotes the digital transformation of China's sports industry and provides new ideas and directions for it. Combined with the current social background, this study was to expound the development status of online fitness in the post-epidemic era and put forward prospects and suggestions for the future development of online fitness. This study took the global online fitness market as the research object and mainly used the literature method and data analysis method with two main purposes: (1) Investigating the current status of online fitness development and relevant national policies on national fitness and the promotion of industrial digital transformation through online literature platforms such as CNKI and Wanfang platform and online news platforms such as Xinhuanet, and serve as the research background of this article . (2) Collecting relevant second-hand data from the global online fitness market through online database platforms such as the Sports Information Network and the China Economic and Social Big Data Research Platform and analyzing relevant data on the online fitness market before and after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic. The findings showed the necessity of digital transformation in the sports industry. The vigorous development of emerging digital industries such as artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing has brought human society into a new era of digitalization. In the context of digitalization, the digital transformation of all walks of life has become an inevitable trend for the survival and development of the industry. In 2020, the global digital economy will reach US$32.6 trillion, a nominal year-on-year increase of 3.0%, accounting for 43.7% of GDP. Industrial digitization occupies an absolute dominant position in the development of the global digital economy, accounting for 84.4% of the scale of the digital economy. Therefore, if the sports industry wants to develop and innovate, it must embark on the road of digital transformation. Secondly, the proportion of the fitness industry in the sports industry is increasing. With the support of technology, online fitness has emerged. Since the State Council promulgated the Outline of the National Fitness Program in 1995, the concept of National Fitness has gradually changed. As the country continues to propose and improve the National Fitness Program, the number of residents in my country continues to increase. Under the current social background, the incidence of chronic diseases and the number of sub-healthy people caused by problems such as excessive stress and bad living habits of urban residents are continuously increasing. Physical exercise is particularly important, and people's enthusiasm and initiative for fitness are gradually increasing. With the continuous development of technical support, a number of online fitness platforms have emerged, such as mobile apps such as keep and Lepao, and various smart wearable devices, providing new models for people's sports. Finally, the rapid development of the online fitness industry has promoted the growth of the global sports industry market and the implementation of the national fitness policy. Affected by the epidemic, the online fitness industry has grown rapidly. In 2020, the global fitness APP market will be approximately 4.4 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 53.2% over 2019; as of September 2020, the download volume of global fitness and health APPs has increased by 46%. Moreover, from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2020, daily active users of fitness apps increased by 24%. In 2019, the scale of the global online fitness industry was approximately US$6.04 billion. In 2021, the scale of the global online fitness industry reached US$10.71 billion, an increase of 77.33%. Although the epidemic has restricted residents’ outing activities, more and more people have begun to choose online sports, including the use of smart wearable devices, online app guidance and recording, etc., which has brought online fitness models. In the context of the epidemic, the online fitness model has greatly promoted the implementation of the national fitness policy and is also an important path for the digital transformation of the sports industry. It is suggested that the digital transformation of the sports industry is an important direction for the future development of the sports industry. In the context of technological development and support and the new crown pneumonia epidemic, online fitness, an emerging fitness model, has emerged and has become an important fitness model, and at the same time has promoted the digital transformation of the sports industry. Online fitness should focus on the development of personalized customization of fitness courses and programs to meet the individual needs of users; strengthen the association with social platforms to increase user stickiness; dig deep into user data, identify user pain points, and then take advantage of their products make improvements with services.