High-tech Fitness Peloton Is the Latest Example of How the Internet Is Replacing Products with Services
高科技健身：互联网正在促成以服务取代产品Peloton是最新一例
As anyone in a CrossFit class or Bikram-yoga studio will tell you, fitness is full of fads. Few make it to the stockmarket. But on August 27th Peloton, an American firm founded in 2012, announced it had filed paperwork for an initial public offering. Peloton describes itself as a “technology fitness media design software retail product apparel experience logistics” company. Its investors reckon it could be worth $4bn.
每个参加过混合健身班（CrossFit）或比克拉姆瑜伽（Bikram-yoga）工作室的人都会跟你说，健身全都是一时狂热。这一行几乎没有公司能进入股市。但8月27日，成立于2012年的美国公司Peloton宣布已递交了首次公开募股的文件。Peloton把自己描述为一家“科技健身媒体设计软件零售产品服饰体验物流”公司。其投资者估计其市值可能达40亿美元。
Stripped of the aspirational jargon, the firm is in the business of selling high-tech (and high-priced) home exercise bikes. Each bike, which costs $2,245, comes with a touchscreen, a version of Google’s Android operating system and an internet connection. For a monthly fee, users can tune into streamed exercise sessions, either live or pre-recorded, complete with leaderboards and statistics. The effect is a mix of a studio spinning class and a YouTube live stream, as perky instructors give shout-outs to individual users who are puffing away in their living rooms hundreds of miles away. For those who dislike cycling, a $4,295 treadmill is also available.
撇去这一串野心毕露的术语，该公司的业务是销售高科技（并且是高价）的家用健身单车。每辆单车售价2245美元，配有触摸屏、谷歌的安卓操作系统，可连接互联网。支付一笔月费后，用户可以观看直播或录制的流媒体健身课程，查看排行榜和统计数据。它就像是健身房的动感单车课程和YouTube直播的混合体，生龙活虎的教练们朝着数百英里外在自家客厅里气喘吁吁的用户们高呼鼓劲。不喜欢骑自行车的人可以买一台4295美元的跑步机。
Like many of the current crop of tech “unicorns” – private companies with a valuation of $1bn or more – Peloton does not do anything so unfashionable as making money. It lost $196m in the 12 months to June, up from $48m the year before, as it threw money at attracting new customers. But its efforts seem to be working: it has 511,000 subscribers, more than double the number last year. Revenue has doubled too, reaching $915m in 2019. It is popular among trendsetters. David Beckham, an ex-footballer, is a fan, as is Barack Obama, an ex-president. That aspirational glow allows the firm to get away with gross margins on hardware of 43%, higher even than Apple’s famously lucrative gadgets. Despite its high prices (or perhaps because of them) it also boasts enviable customer loyalty.
和很多新一代科技独角兽（估值在10亿美元或以上的私营企业）一样，Peloton不做任何不够时髦的事情，比如赚钱。为吸引新客户，它大把砸钱，以致在截至今年6月的12个月里亏损了1.96亿美元，而上年同期为4800万美元。不过它的努力似乎起效了：它的订户数已达51.1万，是去年的两倍多。收入也翻了一番，今年达到9.15亿美元。它在潮流开创者中很受欢迎。前足球运动员贝克汉姆和前美国总统奥巴马都是它的粉丝。这种号召力光环让它的硬件的毛利率达到43%，甚至比苹果公司那些以高利润闻名的产品还要高。尽管很贵（或许正因如此），它的客户忠诚度仍高得令人艳羡。
Exercise-bike makers used to be in the manufacturing business. But Peloton makes about 20% of revenue from subscriptions, and the share is rising. Margins here are mediocre but should improve as content-production costs are spread over more users. The shift illustrates a broader trend: thanks to the internet, industries that used to be about products are increasingly about services, too. This lets firms replace unpredictable sales with a steady stream of subscription revenue. If they can pull it off.
运动单车制造商过去一直属于制造业。但Peloton约20%的收入来自订阅，而且这一比例还在上升。这部分业务的利润率很寻常，但随着内容生产成本被分摊到更多用户身上，应该会进一步提升。这种转变体现了一个更广泛的趋势：由于互联网的发展，过去以产品为主的行业也越来越多地转向以服务为主。这可以让公司用稳定的订阅收入取代难以预测的销售收入——如果它们能完成这种转变的话。
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