One prime-time TV segment brought WeWard 300,000 downloads in under five minutes, and crashed the app

WeWard, a French walking-rewards app launched in 2019, grew for four years through organic reach and PR rather than paid user acquisition, with a major television appearance generating roughly 300,000 downloads in minutes despite briefly crashing the app. Founder Yves Benchimol said this PR-led strategy worked in several European markets but failed initially in the United States, where the company lacked local recognition and a compelling media narrative. Its U.S. profile improved after tennis star Venus Williams became both an investor and partner, contributing to hiring credibility, lower acquisition costs, organic installs, media interest, and branded content. WeWard earns revenue through advertising, in-app purchases, a growing premium subscription, and affiliate commissions from brands including Nike, Adidas, Amazon, Expedia, and Booking.com, while declining partnerships it considers inconsistent with its wellness mission. Rather than optimizing for time spent in the app, the company measures success through users’ walking activity and requires product experiments to increase step counts; a recent feature that blocks selected social apps until a walking goal is met reportedly increased steps among users by 10%. Benchimol also discussed abandoning early Ethereum-based rewards after users preferred conventional loyalty points, the difficulty of ending unsuccessful initiatives, and B2B operations as a major challenge for the 80-person company operating across 29 countries.

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