Strava

Strava is an American internet service for tracking physical exercise which incorporates social network features. It started out tracking mostly outdoor cycling and running activities using Global Positioning System (GPS) data, but now incorporates several dozen other exercise types, including indoor activities. Strava uses a freemium model with some features only available in the paid subscription plan. The service was founded in 2009 by Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath and is based in San Francisco, California.

Overview

Strava records data for a user's activities, which can then be shared with the user's followers or shared publicly. If an activity is shared publicly, Strava automatically groups activities that occur at the same time and place (such as taking part in a marathon, sportive or group ride). An activity's recorded information may include a route summary, elevation (net and unidirectional), speed (average and maximum), timing (total and moving time), power and heart rate. Activities can be recorded using the mobile app or from devices manufactured by third parties like Garmin, Google Fit, Suunto, and Wahoo. Activities can also be entered manually via the Strava website and mobile app.

Strava Metro, a program marketed towards city planners, uses cycling data from Strava users in supported cities and regions.

History

Strava, which means "strive" in Swedish (although spelled "sträva" in Swedish with an "ä"), was founded in 2009. Cofounders Michael Horvath and Mark Gainey first met in the 1980s as members of Harvard University's rowing crew.

Initially popular with cyclists and eventually runners, by 2017 over 1 billion activities had been uploaded to the service. By 2020, Strava had more than 50 million users and three billion activities had been uploaded.

In May 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Strava made significant changes to its user terms. Some of the features that were previously free were only to be available with a paid-for subscription, and most new developments going forward would be available only to subscribers.

In March 2022, Strava stopped operating in Russia and Belarus because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In early 2023, Strava significantly raised subscription prices in many markets—some more than doubling. A month earlier, the company laid off approximately 14% of its workforce. The company's last venture capital funding was a $110 million Series F in 2020. In January 2023 Strava also acquired Fatmap, a company focused on building high-resolution 3D maps used for outdoor activities, with a long-term goal to integrate Fatmap’s core platform into the Strava platform.

In February 2023, founder and current CEO Michael Horvath announced that he would resign. In December 2023, Strava announced Michael Martin, former executive at YouTube, as the new CEO.

On March 5, 2025, Strava moved into a new headquarters office on four levels of the 181 Fremont tower in San Francisco. In May 2025, Strava acquired the running app Runna and the cycling app Breakaway, increasing its valuation to around $2.2 billion, including its debt.

Features and tools

Strava incorporates social media features which allow users to post their exercises to followers. Alongside a map of their exercise users can also post pictures and videos. Followers can then comment on posts and give 'kudos' in the form of a like button.

Beacon is a feature that allows Strava users to share their location in real time with anyone they choose to, and nominate others as a safety contact for their workout. Other premium features include access to custom route-building tools and access to map segment leaderboards.

Strava maintains a system of leaderboards that show the most frequent runners or riders on a segment, as well as the fastest times by activity type. These fastest segment times (also known as KOMs/QOMs ( King/Queen of the Mountain) for cycling segments, or CRs (Course Record) for running segments) have been widely criticized for including times by athletes banned for doping, as well as fake times logged by motorized vehicles and other forms of cheating such as biking on runs. In response, Strava released tools for users to report suspicious activities.

Strava art

Some users of the platform use the GPS mapping feature to create line drawings, known as Strava art, within the broader field of GPS drawing. A Canadian runner created 120 such designs and went viral for it. Images have been made while running, cycling, skating, and travelling by other methods, and records such as "largest GPS drawing by bicycle (team)" have been recognised by Guinness World Records.

Privacy concerns

In November 2017, Strava published a "Global Heatmap"—a "visualization of two years of trailing data from Strava's global network of athletes." In January 2018, an Australian National University student studying international security discovered that this map had mapped military bases, including known U.S. bases in Syria, and forward operating bases in Afghanistan, and HMNB Clyde—a Royal Navy base that contains the United Kingdom's nuclear arsenal. The findings led to continued scrutiny over privacy issues associated with fitness services and other location-aware applications; Strava's CEO James Quarles stated that the company was "committed to working with military and government officials" on the issue, and would be reviewing its features and simplifying its privacy settings. Although users can now opt out of having their data aggregated on the global heatmap, the original data that contains sensitive information has been archived on GitHub.

A separate security flaw was reported in June 2022 that allowed the identification and tracking of security personnel working at military bases in Israel. Distinct from the previous heatmap issue, this vulnerability relied on Strava's segments feature.

In June 2023, a report claimed that Strava heat map data could be used to reveal the home addresses of highly active users in remote areas.

In August 2023, Strava was used to identify a Raleigh, North Carolina resident as the alleged arsonist who lit a ”Trump won” lawn sign on fire.

In July 2024 runners for hire, colloquially known as "Strava jockeys", made headlines in Singapore, offering to log into Strava under their clients ID and run an agreed upon distance in an agreed upon time, charging around 10.000 Indonesian rupiah per kilometer. Asked for comment, Strava spokesperson James Foster pointed out, that the use of such services and the sharing of login data would be a violation of Strava’s terms of service and could result in a ban from the platform.

In October 2024, an investigation by ''Le Monde'' revealed that the fitness-tracking app exposed the movements and locations of world leaders' security teams, including those of French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Joe Biden, raising serious concerns about potential security risks and the need for stricter guidelines on the use of such apps by security personnel. A 2025 report by ''La Presse'' found similar breaches for former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.

References

External links

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Strava Heatmap

{{Sports-tracking-apps

GPS sports tracking applications
Mobile software
Companies based in San Francisco
Fitness apps
Proprietary cross-platform software
2009 software
American companies established in 2009
2009 establishments in California
Privacy controversies