Health Tech Case Study For “Google Fit” Users

“Google Fit” is a health management application developed by Google. With it you can record exercise time, number of steps taken, calories burned, sleep time, and even weight changes. If you link it to a smartwatch, which are very trendy right now, you can even monitor the data while exercising.

There are certainly few people who do not have a Google account, which is required to get started with "Google Fit.” In other words, "Google Fit" should be somewhat familiar, and it is even free to use. In addition, "Google Fit" even comes pre-installed on smartwatches which have Google installed.

“Google Fit" records and manages the amount of exercise, the number of steps taken, and travel history linked to a map all just by simply carrying a device such as a smartphone. Data gets monitored without any particular intention since most people carry their smartphones with them even for short trips like shopping anyway which makes it a system fit for everyone, young and old, male and female alike.

Let's analyze the actual popularity of "Google Fit" and the kind of people who are interested in it. For this analysis, we will use the marketing analyzation tool “Dockpit.”

The number of users searching for "Google Fit" has been increasing for the past two years. As you can see in the following charts, both the number of users searching for the application and the number of users using the application have increased.

Next, let’s take a look at the demographics for “Google Fit” search users.

The male to female ratio was dominated by men, accounting for 72.5% of the total. In regards to age, the largest number of users were in their 40s, followed by those in their 50s and 30s. These demographics also showed that the percentage of users that were single in the 40s and older bracket was higher than that of most internet users.

Next, let’s examine the crosswords that were searched for in conjunction with "Google Fit." As “Google Fit" is characterized by its ability to link to various external devices and applications, the top keyword in the search results was "linkage."

The next most common keyword was "smartwatch," suggesting that people are searching for Google Fit-compatible smartwatches.

The following are devices and applications that were searched for in conjunction with “Google Fit”.

Devices
・HUAWEI
・Xiaomi
＜アプリ＞
・Mi(Mi Smart band or Mi Fit)
・Fitbit

Users searching in conjunction with HUAWEI and Xiaomi especially increased.

Topics searched by people who want to control their health using “Google Fit” were “steps taken” and “weight.”

Let’s examine changes in the crosswords over the last 2 years up to January 2022.

[The first period: February - July 2020]
Many users searched for basic functions such as “how to use”, “heart rate”, “weight” and “sleep.” As for linked smartwatches, “Garmin” gathered a lot of attention. That is inspired by “DRAGON QUEST WALK”.

[The second period: August 2020 - January 2021]
Many users searched for topics they want to link to such as “application”, “sleep ”and “blood pressure.”

[The third period: February - July 2021]
The number of crosswords increased, and there were many users searching for “heart points” which had just been introduced in “Google Fit.” The number of searches to solve errors such as “not synchronizing "and “not counted ”also increased.

[The fourth period: August 2021 - January 2022]
The crosswords increased. The crosswords for devices such as “HUAWEI”, “Xiaomi”, “PC” and “iPhone” increased sharply.

Let’s analyze the specific interests of people interested in “Google Fit” by using the target user analysis tool “Story Bank.”

The map below shows the ‘reach rate’ on the vertical axis and ‘feature value’ on the horizontal axis. Definitions of these terms are as follows.

For the ‘reach rate’ on the vertical axis, the higher the number is, the more interested the users are in that genre. For the ‘feature value’ in the horizontal axis, the higher the number is, the wider the difference compared to the general net users is.

When you consider both numbers together, the higher and further right it is located the more it is of particular interest and concern.
It illustrates that the most highly interested areas are “smartphone”, “TV programs”, “money, investment”, “domestic travel” and “health, medicine, sickness.”

Furthermore, when we analyzed concerns about health, “ lack of sleep”, “eye strain”, “stiff shoulders”, “overweight, metabolic” stood out.

Eye fatigue due to excessive use of smartphones, stiff shoulders, and other problems faced by people today are directly reflected here.

We have analyzed “Google Fit,” a free health management application published by Google Inc.

“Google Fit" allows users to manage their exercise and step counts, as well as their travel history linked to a map, simply by carrying a smartphone or other device. Both the number of users searching for "Google Fit" and the number of users using the app are on the rise, making it one of the leading tools in the health tech space.

Based on the demographics and crosswords of "Google Fit" search users, we analyzed what kind of people are interested in this service. The majority of these users were male (72.5%), and the largest age group was in their 40s.

One of the features of “Google Fit” is that it can link with a variety of other devices and applications. There were certainly many names of devices and applications found in the crosswords list.
The following are the crosswords which appeared frequently.
Devices
・HUAWEI
・Xiaomi
Applications
・Mi (Mi Smart band or Mi Fit)
・Fitbit
Users searching in conjunction with crosswords HUAWEI and Xiaomi especially increased. Another interesting point were topics searched by people who want to control their health being “steps taken” and “weight.”

The crosswords used in the search changed over time. Two years ago, there were many users who searched about basic functions like “how to use”, “heart rate”, “weight”, “sleep” and so on. Recently, many users used many crosswords with devices such as “HUAWEI”, “Xiaomi”, “PC”, “iPhone” and so on.

The results of a survey of the interests and concerns of people interested in "Google Fit" using "Story Bank" showed that the problems faced by people today, such as tired eyes and stiff shoulders caused by excessive use of smartphones were represented.

The data in this investigation is from “Dockpit”, an analysis tool with online behavior log data and user demographic information under the permission of panelists in Japan presented by VALUES, Inc.

※The numbers of users are estimated by the data in the monitor and the internet population in Japan.