With a private social sharing app like Path, it’s easy to imagine that every user is treating it differently, uploading different kinds of material to different friend groups. But one feature that users consistently enjoy? Path CEO Dave Morin said the Nike+ running integration with Path has proved popular among users.
“The running integration that we’ve done has been stratospherically successful,” Morin said Monday at San Francisco’s TechCrunch Disrupt conference. Path announced the integration with the Nike+ Fuelband in June. The Fuelband uses an accelerometer to track movement throughout the day, information that can be shared to Path and a user’s friends on the service.
“People tell us they’re running more, faster, and longer, and that they’re more inspired to chase their fitness goals,” Morin said. “They’re creating a conversation about this thing they’re doing every day for an hour.”
Running and fitness apps have proved especially popular among smartphone owners, with competitors like Garmin’s fitness app or Strava’s running tracker gaining good traction in addition to Nike’s popular product.
Morin noted that the company has seen substantial user growth in Asia and metro areas in the U.S., saying the app has more than 3 million downloads, with “about 50 percent of total install base” being active users, although Morin did not specify how they categorize a user as being active.
The Path employees are a particularly athletic-minded bunch, as Morin noted on GigaOM, where he said getting back into competitive athletics was a goal of his for 2012.
