Part of Bob’s continued ramblings.
The term Network Effect became popular with, well – networks, and then with social networks. It is “the idea that when more people use a product or service, its value increases.”
I was not sure if there would be a network effect to our registration business as we are just the technology platform that tens of thousands of races use each year to signup nearly 10 Million people this year. We view the event directors as our customers and we just provide technology that helps them with their participants.
However, we are beginning to see two different network effects.
Runners Like Signing Up with RunSignup
The first network effect we are seeing it that runners simply like signing up on RunSignup.
For first time participants, it is easy and quick. We have paid a lot of attention to details like speed of website, fast checkout with things like ApplePay, and visually pleasing websites and forms that are modern and mobile first designed.
The network effect is coming from participants who have RunSignup accounts. There are about 50 Million people with RunSignup accounts now. And people with accounts find it VERY quick to signup. We remember all of their personal information, and event things like Emergency Contact and Shirt Size. This makes filling in forms fast and easy. And 1,297,980 participants have saved their credit cards for fast checkout. Endurance athletes are also increasingly using their Profile Page to see past races and performances.
In 2023, there were 1,139,925 people who signed up for 2 or more races on RunSignup. That is up from 874,787 in 2022. The number of people who just sign up for one race each year is hard to measure, but is much larger – likely more than 4 Million in 2024.
More and more races are recognizing that they can make their participants happy by using RunSignup. This is bringing more participants onto the RunSignup platform, which encourages more races to use RunSignup. Hence our first network effect that we are hearing from both new races (“One of the reasons we are switching to RunSignup is that our runners like you”) and from participants (“You work at RunSignup?! I love you guys!”).
Running Clubs and Race Collaboration
The second network effect we are starting to see more of is best understood in this diagram:
We have a number of running clubs that have used the feature of giving a discount to members (and having new members join while they signing up) for a club race. This is a feature we have had for nearly a dozen years.
What we are beginning to see is smart races reaching out to clubs, or clubs that are looking to grow reaching out to races in their area and collaborating on cross promoting. The race offers $5 off to club members and the club advertises the race on their website (we have an easy component that automates the list of races offering a discount). Races can also offer to allow runners to sign up for the club while they are signing up for the race (we split the money correctly between the race and the club).
We are also talking with some event organizations and running stores that have a race business about putting a Membership in place. The power of our Membership product is that they can have multiple levels with different benefits. Perhaps a Free Tier that just gives $2 off a race price as well as join the weekly store run and a $100 Tier that gives 50% off race fees. The basic idea of moving closer to your participants is powerful – making them feel more connected than a once a year engagement.
RunSignup Business
For our business, this creates a very positive network effect that helps clubs and races, and brings us more and more customers. Which allows us to develop more and more software to make our customers more and more successful. A virtuous cycle.