Magic Mountain is a revolutionary app, helping to transform global health through the power of social technology. By bringing people together through shared experience and collective achievement, we encourage genuine, long-term lifestyle change. Users partner with friends, colleagues or team-mates on a joint commitment to burn calories over a regular basis, and work together collectively to achieve that goal and climb their 'mountain'.
Even before the current global pandemic, the developed world faced twin crises of obesity and loneliness, with 65% of people in the UK living a sedentary life and 53% of people feeling lonely. The popularity of health clubs and fad diets amply demonstrated people's desire to get fitter, but with 72% of gym memberships inactive and 64% of UK adults overweight, it was clear that traditional approaches were not working.
The social distancing measures introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated both of these trends. Research suggests that 85% of people in the UK are engaging in no daily moderate exercise, whilst isolation has placed severe strain on people's mental wellbeing. As a society, we need to help our people to live more healthily, by making fitness fun, and to forge more profound connections with each other through digital channels.
Funding from Innovate UK will be used to assist this effort by rolling developing a feature comparable Google Android App which will enable us to sell our Corporate Wellness capability. This project will comprise: market research, requirements gathering, design, build and ultimately deploy a, feature comparable, Google Android App. This project will enable employers in the UK and globally to deploy Magic Mountain the over 95% of their employees (based on smart phone usage), helping their people to become more active, healthier, and better connected to one-another. As a social fitness app, Magic Mountain is entirely compatible with existing lockdown restrictions, but longer term we expect to see a greater degree of home-working, making digital connectivity all-the-more vital for companies, employees, and societal wellbeing.
Magic Mountain is unique amongst fitness apps in combining the powerful principles of gamification and group psychology to inspire users to live more healthily. It is built on the proven principle of public commitment and shared obligation, and on rewarding users for every calorie burned. The app is live on the iOS App Store where it is five-star rated.
The additional funding provided by an impact extension will allow Magic mountain to continue to support the development and bug fixes that are inevitable when launching a new app (on android). With two apps then production ready and launched in their respective stores, the funding will allow us to accelerate our marketing efforts across social media. Bringing greater speed and impact to the market during the crucial first months of the year.