Days after it laid off at least 10% of its staff including trainers, Cure.fit announced that it is going to be monetising cult.live, the digital fitness platform that was launched just before the lockdown.
Cure.fit said that customers will be able to choose between a 3-month, 6-month and 12-month pack, which will be after a 14-day free trial. However, the company has not announced charges for the same.
The company had earlier said that the lockdown accelerated its plans, with the product’s launch initially slated for the first quarter of 2021.
Members of cult.fit will also get access to the online sessions for free, including the live classes and live recipes.
Cult.live allows customers to workout at home in a variety of formats, including in dance fitness, strength and conditioning, boxing, yoga, HIIT and more, and was made free to everyone. This also includes ‘Cult Live Masterclasses’ in April, with classes being taken by celebrity trainers, actors, sportspersons and fitness influencers.
“With physical gym operations being suspended at the moment, cure.fit has adapted itself in the last few months and transferred most of its services to the digital space,” Ankit Nagori, cure.fit’s co-founder.
“So far, our digital verticals have been popularly received and we want to continue to build on that momentum. Through monetization, we hope that our popular live sessions can enable us to amplify the cure.fit experience for our users,” he added.
"When we launched digital classes we did not know that this model would see such a high uptake from non-members as well. Now that the product has evolved, will feel confident and will start monetising live classes as early as next few weeks but it will also continue to have a freemium model," Ankit Nagori had earlier told CNBC TV18.
In an earlier letter after the company received flak for its layoffs, founders Ankit and Mukesh Bansal had said that only 50 trainers were engaged in live classes and keeping the remaining trainers (from a base of over 2500) on the bench without any revenue in sight is not a sustainable cost structure.
The founders also said they are forgoing 100% of the salary for one year. All senior management is taking 50% cuts, and all central teams working than full-time will take 20-30% cut starting June.