About 24 million people in the United States did yoga at least once in 2013, and participation has been increasing by 6.5 percent annually, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. A survey commissioned by Yoga Journal revealed that more than 44 percent of people who don’t practice yoga are interested in trying it. Enter Adriene Mishler, an actress, yoga teacher, and entrepreneur from Austin, Texas. Adriene co-founded Find What Feels Good (www.yogawithadriene.vhx.tv/members-only), a video subscription website that provides creative yoga and yoga lifestyle content to some 2 million subscribers. In addition, Adriene also produces and hosts Yoga With Adriene (YWA), a successful online community that provides high quality yoga instruction at no cost to inspire people of all shapes and sizes across the globe. The development of free yoga videos came from Mishler’s mission to get the tools of yoga into schools and homes (www.yogawithadriene.com). YWA has been recognized by Google as the most searched workout, has been recognized by the Wall Street Journal, and was awarded a Streamy in Health and Wellness.

1.Research the exploding online fitness and health industry, and describe two companies offering fitness or wellness services. Discuss the pros and cons of offering fitness services this way online.

2.In what stage of the product life cycle is online fitness? What role has mobile technology played in evolution of this industry? Explain.