Peloton doesn’t like that people think of them as this bicycle company. That is why CEO Barry McCarthy said that the company would “relaunch its branding” in the next few weeks so more people will be aware that they do other activities too. Peloton will relaunch its app, with a new subscription system.
On today’s Q3 earnings call for 2023, CFO Liz Coddington stated that “app tiers would have different amounts content variances depending on price.” Users who pay for All Access membership and have purchased Peloton hardware will be able to access all of Peloton’s features.
McCarthy noted that the Guide product is only at 1 percent. Peloton’s app has the highest percentage of sales among its non-bike products, at 5 percent. Coddington noted that Row sales were “heavily biased” towards existing Peloton customers.
In its most recent earnings, Lululemon announced that it was taking a similar tack for Mirror. Lululemon announced it was taking a similar tack for Mirror in its most recent earnings, saying it would rElease a subscription that is digital only sometime this summer.
This makes sense as a $13 per month fee to access Peloton classes, the real cash cow of the company, is more appealing to the average person that a $3200 rower. McCarthy stated that subscriptions surpassed hardware revenue by 30 million dollars last quarter, and by 100 million dollars this quarter.
We faced challenges almost everywhere in our business last year — except content. McCarthy stated on the phone that content is the gold goose. Is it a better bike from a hardware standpoint than anything else that has come before? The instructors and content are what bind the community in a way that is almost religious.
Content is the gold goose.
The company said that it also saw strong growth with its bicycle leasing program, and its decision of selling refurbished bikes at an affordable price. The company’s other efforts, including its partnership with Amazon and Hilton, also performed well.
Peloton has yet to move beyond its disastrous 2022 , but it is showing signs of progress. It reported a loss of $275.9m, which was higher than expected and its ninth consecutive quarter of losses. Today, the company announced that it has decided to settle with Dish over a patent dispute for $75 million. Peloton will be under more financial pressure in the future, but it avoids an export ban by the International Trade Commission. Peloton stock prices fell by about 14 percent in the morning.
