Navigating Covid-19: A Smart Fitness App

The Covid-19 pandemic has thoroughly changed people’s everyday lives. Many countries and regions have adopted strict quarantine and social-distancing measures and restricted or even banned the operation of high-risk premises susceptible to cluster infections, making it impossible for fitness buffs to visit gyms or other sports venues for their daily workouts. Amid the continuing and volatile pandemic conditions, some studies point out that consumers in various parts of the world have gradually developed the good habit of doing exercise at home and are increasingly adapting to the new norm of shopping for home-fitness products from e-commerce platforms and viewing and participating in online fitness courses.

Hong Kong Cyberport technology startup OliveX became a leading provider of home-fitness services after launching the KARA Mirror and KARA Smart Fitness in 2019. Based in Hong Kong, OliveX takes advantage of the Greater Bay Area’s leading edge in the electronic machinery industry and the city’s unique position as the logistics hub of Asia to promote KARA Mirror and the relevant apps to the Asia-Pacific region. OliveX has successfully listed on the National Stock Exchange of Australia recently in a bid to find working partners and further expand its business. In an interview with HKTDC Research, OliveX CEO Keith Rumjahn explained how OliveX provides home-fitness services by online remote instruction using AI technology as well as demonstrations in an increasingly popular 5G environment.

Using Technology to Promote Sports

Rumjahn has been active in the field of science and technology innovation since 2011. Taking advantage of the upsurge of health technology, he has launched several fitness and sports apps for smartphones in the past few years. Among these are 22 Pushups, Garfield Fit and CoachBase. The launch of KARA Mirror by the technology startup OliveX last year marked an important step in the development of personal-fitness products beyond the mobile platform.

KARA Mirror looks like a full-length mirror but is more like a large tablet computer. Users may tab on the mirror to watch fitness videos or take part in remote fitness courses. Its built-in high-definition (HD) touch screen display, speakers, camera, and Bluetooth and network receivers allow users to connect to mobile networks, activate the KARA Smart Fitness app and watch or play close to 200 online fitness videos at any time, with courses covering yoga, aerobics and boxing. The AI real-time analysis function of the app may help correct the users’ movements and postures to improve the safety and effects of remote workouts.

Discussing why his company uses the mirror rather than other types of monitors, Rumjahn explained: “People tend to think of mirrors when they talk about workouts. Most gyms have lots of full-length mirrors for fitness buffs to see their movements and postures in real time. This makes it easier to learn and prevent injuries due to mistakes in movement. For the same reason, our fitness mirror allows users to enjoy the same experience as in the gym while doing their workout at home.”

KARA Mirror encountered the Covid-19 pandemic a year after its launch. Surprisingly, this has had little negative impact on its sales, explained Rumjahn: “All gyms have been forced to suspend operations on account of the pandemic. Many instructors and students are looking for other means to continue their fitness service and training, which is why more and more fitness instructors and students are using our online platform. They are spending more time using KARA Mirror amid the epidemic. Apart from using it every other day or every three days, they are also spending more time on it per session, from 20 minutes before the pandemic to 30 minutes today.

“As opportunities for going out to exercise diminish, fitness buffs seem to be getting more aggressive when setting their online fitness-training goals. This greatly increases the number of people doing high-intensity aerobic fitness exercise. Gyms and other sports venues were the main users of KARA Mirror before Covid-19, but home workouts are gradually becoming the mainstream amid the pandemic. In addition to an increase in the number of home users, a wider scope of usage has also been seen. Users are gradually upgrading from leisure activities such as basic yoga and flexibility training to courses of higher intensity and a greater amount of exercise.”

Rumjahn said content design and production is OliveX’s most important business. Its multi-media studio at Cyberport produces new teaching videos for different instructors each day. The app has been launching new instruction videos on a weekly basis since its launch and so far has uploaded about 200 fitness training courses for users to view at home.

In its content management, KARA Smart Fitness has adopted a model with recording supplemented by live streaming out of consideration for users’ daily schedules. As Rumjahn said: “We have tried using YouTube, mobile apps and KARA’s smart mirror to stream our fitness courses live, but discovered that some viewers mistook our live streaming for commercials. Since different people have different schedules, our live streaming may not be able to accommodate all users. Many people have signed up for membership after watching our live streaming and start to watch our recorded videos after becoming members. Unlike other videos, fitness videos require watchers to follow the instructions of trainers and viewers seldom interact with instructors during live streaming. This makes recording particularly suitable for fitness-training programmes.”

Crossover Co-operation and 5G Opportunities

Since the launch of KARA hardware and software in Hong Kong, OliveX has come across various opportunities for co-operation with other sectors, including hotels, residential gyms and shared workspaces. Explaining this relationship, Rumjahn said: “Some partners simply install our KARA Mirror, but some prefer to use other smart mirrors to run our KARA Smart Fitness app. KARA Mirror is mainly designed for the home environment and is a single person full-length mirror in size. However, we also customise our products and produce “white label” smart fitness mirrors for different companies and brands with supplied designs and trademarks.”

Many international sporting and consumer-goods brands that have taken a fancy to OliveX’s healthy image and customer base have proposed co-operation with the company. Rumjahn explained: “Many sporting apparel brands propose to use our platform to promote their fitness instructors and courses while showcasing sportswear designed for different workouts. With business at brick-and-mortar stores badly hit by the pandemic, our online fitness platform naturally becomes an important channel for sports-related businesses and brands to deepen the recognition and impression of fitness buffs of their products and services. Apart from gaining exposure, this also helps promote their online sales.”

Among OliveX’s numerous projects with other businesses, the most eye-grabbing is its partnership with CSL Mobile to promote 5G mobile network applications. Hong Kong’s 5G network infrastructure development is actively underway, with CSL looking to complete 90% of its 5G network coverage by the third quarter of this year. Following the successive launch of 5G phones by major smartphone manufacturers in 2020, 5G applications are becoming a part of our daily life rather than mere castles in the air.

[1] The smooth streaming of a 720p HD video generally requires a download speed of 4Mb per second or more while the smooth streaming of a 1080p HD video requires a speed of at least 16Mb per second.