This has been a big year for
SparkPeople,
a Cincinnati-based online fitness community founded in 2001 by Chris
Downie. The community's 11 millionth member registered in April, and
Downie's book, "The Spark," landed on the
New York Times bestseller list.
Downie calls the success an entrepreneur's dream come true.
"As
an entrepreneur, in your head you always dream of these things
happening, and to actually see these things happen is exciting," he
says.
Long before the rise of Facebook, and only a few years
after online forums became mainstream, SparkPeople made community
interaction a key part of its design. Downie says his experience
creating an auction site (that eventually became part of eBay) helped
lay the foundation, but that it was mission, more than technology, that
launched SparkPeople to its current status as America's largest online
health and wellness community.
"Our goal was always to build a
consumer brand that stood for authentically helping people," he says.
"Really, we've just followed that mission and it's grown in some really
interesting ways."
SparkPeople's initial offerings such as recipe
plans and forums where members could encourage each other and share
fitness tips has expanded in parallel with the growth of Web 2.0
technology. Members can now create personal homepages that track their
statistics, earn points for achieving healthy lifestyle goals and
challenge each other to achieve fitness milestones. The site's interface
has changed and evolved accordingly. But through it all, Downie says a
central concept - setting achievable, progressive goals - has played a
key role.
"One of the biggest things is the way we look at
reaching goals," he explains. "We've actually figured out how to make
weight loss into a fun and exciting experience."
In a world full
of fad diets and quick weight-loss schemes, that may sound like a raw
sales pitch. But given that SparkPeople doesn't charge for membership,
and that Downie says much of the new-member growth comes from personal
referrals to the site, it appears to hold merit.
Downie says that
as SparkPeople moves into its second decade, his team is busy with a
number of advances, improvements and new projects. He declined to
elaborate beyond noting an upcoming cookbook and fitness DVD, both
slated for release later this year. The company is also assembling a New
York City-based media team to explore new ventures.
"Even though
we've been doing this for 10 years, in some ways we could be at the
very early stages of where this could go," he says.
By Matt Cunningham
Follow Matt on Twitter @cunningcontent
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