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Peloton replaces CEO and lays off 2,800 people

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Re: Peloton replaces CEO and lays off 2,800 people

#231

Post by latchkey »

nradov wrote: post #209
cbm-vic-20 wrote: post #173

Anecdotally, it appears that Zwift usage is still growing. It's more race and social oriented than Peleton, and less of a "spin class simulator", but it's only $15/mo and doesn't require as much of an up-front equipment investment. I think Peleton believed too much of their own BS and flew too close to the sun.

The Zwift up-front investment is only really lower if you already have some of the necessary pieces. But if you're starting from scratch and have to buy a bike, smart trainer, tablet / laptop, and stand then that can cost as much or more than a Peloton bike depending on how fancy you want to get.

A bike that you can use outdoors too.

Re: Peloton replaces CEO and lays off 2,800 people

#232

Post by austinprete »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #169
thebigman433 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2$/month would pay for nothing essentially. You get unlimited classes for the 40$/month, which is cheaper than going to most fitness classes more than a few times. Even in the middle of my small town, drop in classes at the gym at 8$ each, on top of your monthly membership. Fwiw I dont own a Peloton, I prefer running, I just dont think its nearly as bad of a deal as people make it out to be

I'm not a user either but $40 at their current subscriber number comes in at a quarter billion dollars of revenue. How come everything else takes advantage of economies of scale but not virtual goods? $2 a month at scale would be great. Even greater if they allowed you to log into any of a number of fitness video services.

From Peloton’s point of view (bottom line yadda yadda), you’d have to think that dropping to this price would 20X their subscriber count. Which is not to say that $40 is the correct profit maxima, but it almost certainly isn’t $2.

Just because something can be offered cheaper at scale, doesn’t mean it should or needs to be.

Re: Peloton replaces CEO and lays off 2,800 people

#233

Post by RHSeeger »

pc86 wrote: post #155
RHSeeger wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time I see I have a meeting with MS Teams, I get annoyed. - Most of the time, people don't setup a dialin number, so I can't use my phone - There's no way to display both the attendees list and the chat at the same time Those are two examples of things that just cause it to be an "also ran" in my mind. It's just missing a lot of the "nice to have" features; much the way Zoom did when it was first release... it…

This is completely personal preference and I would never enforce it, but I hate when people dial in to a video conference or other meeting. Even when the camera is off, having 10 people on a call but 15 attendees that include a bunch of random phone numbers, combined with not having any idea who is speaking if you don't know everyone's voice by heart, makes it a very suboptimal experience. If everyone had a nice came…

The way Zoom is setup, you dialin and put in your personal attendee code. You still use the computer for video. From a UI perspective, it's no different from using the computer to connect to audio.

From a personal perspective, I prefer the phone for sound quality. I have poor hearing, especially when it comes to understanding speech. As such, I make sure to own a high quality phone with an excellent speaker-phone. The sound on the computer just doesn't compete, and it makes my experience a lot more difficult.

Re: Peloton replaces CEO and lays off 2,800 people

#234

Post by 999900000999 »

no_wizard wrote: post #13

I think we’re starting to see a bit of “post pandemic” economic factors and that explains some of the shake up on Wall Street as of late. I always felt this about Peloton more than anything though, that it was not going to be able to sustain growth numbers as the pandemic when either of these came to pass: 1) ended officially 2) waned on to the point that it became "normalized" in how to handle day to day activities…

Zoom doesn't have massive manufacturing overhead.

Peloton forgot how easily they can be replaced. You can buy a used exercise bike, and play whatever YouTube videos you need on a mounted iPad.

For a while Peloton started to position itself as a tech company, competing with FAANG when it came to total comp.

I've also seen an explosion in fitness tech companies. Peloton struck gold, and should've remained a much smaller company. Instead they started expanding rapidly, and lost the plot.

My heart goes out to the laid off though.

Re: Peloton replaces CEO and lays off 2,800 people

#235

Post by superultra »

dkobia wrote: post #54

Peloton has pretty expensive products and induces the same reaction folks had to iPhones before other companies released similarly priced flagships. Generally I think it's easy to hate on these products if you don't have one. I was pretty skeptical myself. "Was", because my partner picked up the Peloton Bike and subsequently the Peloton Tread. Like some other comments here, the almost cultish following is quite fasci…

There are two strengths at Peloton: the hardware is pretty solidly made, and the talent. We tested a lot of bikes before picking up a used Peloton. The hardware feels like an Apple product to me, and it lasts like it too. Everything just “works.”

But what keeps us doing peloton is really the classes. The content is really broad, there’s always something to do, if you don’t like an instructor, there are plenty more.

It’s hard to articulate this to anyone who hasn’t dived in.

One friend said they don’t need their therapist after doing peloton classes. That’s a stretch but it’s something like that.

Re: Peloton replaces CEO and lays off 2,800 people

#236

Post by awillen »

N_A_T_E wrote: post #17

Is it just me or is $40 a month too much for the content they provide? I would spend a couple thousand on fancy exercise equipment, or maybe get one as a gift for my parents but the required subscription gives me rent seeking vibes.

I've scrolled through these comments and am surprised to see no one's pointed out the alternative - it's $13.99/month for the content if you don't buy Peloton hardware.

That is in fact as bonkers as it sounds - my wife has a $700 spin bike and just puts an iPad on the front of it. Because she didn't spend $2000 or whatever on the Peloton bike, she says a third of the price for the content.

Re: Peloton replaces CEO and lays off 2,800 people

#237

Post by sushisource »

kristjansson wrote: post #157
Delphiki wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We initially bought a cheaper Schwinn IC4, subscribed to the Peloton app ($12.99/month), and used our 7 year-old iPad to get nearly the same experience (minus the Leaderboard functionality and probably other things). Eventually we wondered why we were even spending $12.99/month on it, as my partner only had a few instructors that she liked, and neither of us could understand, or get behind, the "Peloton culture". We…

Exactly, paying more for the content to motivate one to ride seems like an extravagance when one could, y'know, just ride the bike. +1 for the IC4, it seems like a much better piece of kit than it had a right to be at the (pre/early pandemic) price point - like $800 IIRC.

Eh, I thought the same thing but I've really enjoyed the classes. For me it's not about motivation, it's about getting structure to your ride without needing to plan it yourself. You also get things like the strength classes, etc, which provide the same value. If you work out every day, planning what you're doing accrues nonzero mental load. It's nice to just pop on a class and know you'll get a decent core workout, or whatever.

And I definitely wouldn't say I'm a member of the "culture", I get on, do a class, get off, that's it. The price is worth it for two people in the house I think.

Re: Peloton replaces CEO and lays off 2,800 people

#238

Post by ghaff »

Teknoman117 wrote: post #170
pc86 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is completely personal preference and I would never enforce it, but I hate when people dial in to a video conference or other meeting. Even when the camera is off, having 10 people on a call but 15 attendees that include a bunch of random phone numbers, combined with not having any idea who is speaking if you don't know everyone's voice by heart, makes it a very suboptimal experience. If everyone had a nice came…

I had already built a nice audio setup pre-pandemic because I play games with friends every other evening for the most part. 4K webcam (Logitech BRIO), Blue Yeti for the microphone + a pop filter and a shock mount, and my noise cancelling headphones. All together they cost a fraction of what my work laptop does. No one complains about my audio. Except when teams decides to randomly switch back to the built-in laptop…

I have the BRIO's predecessor, the 920 (which I think is still sold). For my purposes, it's good enough and is super easy to use. I experimented for a while using my Canon EOS but it's just so much more of a hassle that it really isn't worth it. (In part this is because it's an older model that doesn't have continuous autofocus.)

Re: Peloton replaces CEO and lays off 2,800 people

#239

Post by bstar77 »

m4tthumphrey wrote: post #59
N_A_T_E wrote: post #17

Is it just me or is $40 a month too much for the content they provide? I would spend a couple thousand on fancy exercise equipment, or maybe get one as a gift for my parents but the required subscription gives me rent seeking vibes.

Peloton subscriber here. £40/month is worth it. The quality of the classes is impeccable. It's like they've been produced with TV budgets! This price does also include the digital membership which has yoga, boxing and loads of other type of workouts. The bike (Bike+) is expensive but it's a solid piece of kit and does come with a 24 inch (Android) tablet. Edit: Forgot to say, the £40/month is per bike, not per member…

I have a Peloton and a Tonal. The Tonal monthly cost is more, but it's far superior to Peloton. Tonal does hide some feature behind the paywall which is a bit sketchy. All said, both devices are worth the $100/month combined expense, and my health improvements I've achieved has been incredible for me. This is all achievable with other stuff, but my schedule usually has me working out after 11pm. And I have 2 other family members that use both.

Re: Peloton replaces CEO and lays off 2,800 people

#240

Post by superultra »

dcchambers wrote: post #150

Peloton has a solid product, solid revenue, and a very devoted following. I think they will be fine as a medium sized company . The reality is they were just overvalued as a result of the pandemic. It should have been obvious to anyone that the insane user growth they had wasn't sustainable.

This right here. Had the pandemic never happened, Peloton would have grown more slowly and appropriately. Instead they were like no-face in Spirited Away; they just kept eating and eating and getting bigger and bigger.

I don’t know why they did this because someone internal had to know this was a one time thing. Yet they acted like they could just power through and sustain growth through mere force of will.

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