For many people, walking is, above all, thinking. The classical philosophers were great walkers, so much so that the peripatetic students of Aristotle had to follow the teacher’s lessons by walking under the porticos of the Lyceum. Nietzsche, for his part, maintained that every six months one should abandon their books to devote themselves to walking; so Kierkegaard, who wrote: “I had the best thoughts while walking and I know of no thought so oppressive that it cannot be walked behind.”
Without reaching the excesses of the poet Arthur Rimbaud, who ended up paying the extreme consequences of his legendary walks, walking is an elixir for physical and mental health. However, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), by the year 2030, nearly 500 million people worldwide will suffer heart complications, obesity, diabetes or other chronic diseases due to a sedentary lifestyle.
In fact, at least 81% of adolescents and 27.5% of adults do not meet the levels of physical activity recommended by the WHO. A true pandemic that in ten years, between 2020 and 2030, will cost the states 25.6 billion euros a year, if measures are not taken to promote physical activity in the population. Of course, where there is a social emergency, there is also a potential market demand, to which the technology industry intends to respond.
The European digital health market is the second largest in the world after the United States: from 2015 to 2020 it grew by 412%, attracting the attention of large funds that invested 3.8 billion euros in startups of this type in 2020 alone The following year, the sector was already worth 166.5 billion worldwide and it is estimated that it will reach 1.4 trillion in 2030, with an annual growth of 27.7%.
Digital health is an ecosystem that includes health information systems, telemedicine and mobile devices (mHealth), as well as software designed to support activities aimed at maintaining good health. In particular, apps are flourishing that try to encourage even the most recalcitrant people to walk, like the great British pilot Stirling Moss, who wondered: “if God wanted us to walk, why did he give us feet that perfectly fit our feet?” car pedals?
Human beings, on the other hand, do almost nothing for nothing. That’s why these apps offer rewards for every time we put one foot in front of the other. They work thanks to the GPS geolocation system present in our smartphones, or they connect directly to the phone’s pedometer. In this way they can trace the movements, calculating the distance traveled and transforming it into a score.
It is clear that getting rich walking is not realistic, however, a small financial incentive can be useful to establish or maintain this good habit. In addition, everything is framed under the engaging mechanism of gamification, with small objectives, games and challenges to overcome to increase the score. The reward can consist of discount coupons for products of sponsoring brands, cryptocurrencies or current currency.
Among the best known examples we find Sweatcoin, developed by Russian businessmen living in England, which pays walkers with an internal virtual currency, usable in one of the many stores linked to the platform. StepBet, on the other hand, allows you to bet with yourself, establishing small weekly goals.
The French WeWard also has a virtual currency that can be converted into euros or into vouchers: 1,500 steps give the right to 1 Ward, 20,000 to 25 Wards. The first transfer, of 15 euros, is made after 3000 Wards, up to a maximum of 60 euros. Points are earned by walking, buying affiliate brands, answering surveys, watching advertising videos, or even visiting places suggested by the app.
The first application of this type born in Spain also works in a very similar way, called Macadam in honor of the Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam, who in 1820 invented the homonymous road paving system, known as macadam and used until today.
The founders are three young French entrepreneurs based in Barcelona: Benjamin Daudignac, Louis Roblin and Baptiste Villain. In fact, according to the eldest of the three, Daudignac, 33, the city of Barcelona “is the European capital of mobile phones and for this reason it is the best place for startups that want to operate in this sector”.
Macadam was born in October 2022, beginning his adventure in France, since “we knew perfectly the customs of our fellow citizens,” explains Daudignac. In a few weeks it became the most downloaded in the ‘free apps’ category and for a few months it has also been present in Italy and Spain, where it already has one million users. In 2023, the startup intends to expand to the rest of Europe and the United States.
The entrepreneurs come from the successful experience of the fintech Bling and, thanks to the profits obtained, for the moment they were able to prevent the entry of external capital to Macadam, and thus maintain full control of the company. “The pressure from investors is very strong and now we prefer to have more freedom,” admits Daudignac.
The app shares with walking users part of the money raised through advertising, taking advantage of the pull of a booming sector. In fact, the businessman argues, “after the pandemic, everyone wants to play sports, and our initiative is also in line with the direction taken by large cities, such as Barcelona and Paris, towards an increasing pedestrianization of spaces.”
But the idea also arose from a vital decision. “We had an ultra-sedentary lifestyle for almost three years: we arrived at the office at nine in the morning by motorcycle and left at nine at night, we received food at home every day and we did not do any sports. Finally, we decided to quit our jobs and be more active: now not a day goes by without doing physical activity or at least 10,000 steps”, explains Benjamin.
Macadam records the steps counted by the phone’s pedometer and offers rewards to keep people wanting to meet goals. The results seem satisfactory: “we have seen that our users end up walking 25% more”, in fact, points out the businessman, “walking is the first sport in the world and you don’t have to be great athletes to practice it”.
You can also participate in group challenges. “We have created a whole universe around Macadam, similar to a game with many popular references and offbeat graphics. In the app, our users want to improve themselves and appreciate the fact that they can compare themselves with friends”, says Daudignac. Every night, walkers exchange their steps for virtual coins, which, upon reaching a certain number, can be converted into euros. If money moves the world, how can it not move a couple of feet?
