Digital Health Tech as a Way to Health & Wellness Goals?
Health & wellness have become a major focus in consumer tech, especially since 2020. Its importance is more than evident at CES 2022, as nearly one fifth of the exhibitors were digital health companies. There were even 56 more fitness and wearables exhibitors than last year.
Correspondingly, the numbers from Statista have shown that global wearables unit shipments surged substantially and reached 444.7 million in 2020, higher than previously estimated in the pre-pandemic period. The global end-user spending on wearable devices has grown from 46.2 billion US dollars in 2019 to 69 billion US dollars in 2020, and is expected to reach 93.86 US dollars in 2022.
What is the momentum behind digital health tech?
The development of consumer tech has always had influence in the health and wellness industry, but what has stimulated the digital health tech sector to thrive over the last few years is Covid-19. Here is how Covid-19 has helped push the digital health tech trend.
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The holistic health-consciousness
Consumers have grown more health-conscious over the past decades. As could be expected, Covid-19 gave this trend a massive boost, making people even more cautious about their body and more diligent about pursuing their health & wellness goals. Also health and wellness goals are getting more and more holistic, and technology that can help bring all aspects together is becoming more popular.
In addition to the direct health threat posed by Covid-19, people are facing significantly higher stress levels, in comparison to their experience prior to the pandemic. It has made people pay more attention to their mental health. As a result, both healthcare and tech companies want to address the issue of mental health through various methods.
One example here is that mental wellness apps and tech gained in popularity in recent years. Take Calm as an example. The company has experienced a major leap in 2020, as the number of subscribers doubled and the download counts grew from 40 million to 100 million in 2020.
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The rise of telemedicine
As previously discussed, telemedicine experienced rampant growth ever since the pandemic. The healthcare sector was forced to accelerate digitalization, and the gap between consumers and healthcare service is the opportunity for healthcare and tech companies to seize.
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Burgeoning home fitness
Lockdown is a common method to contain Covid-19, and it tremendously limits the possibility to exercise. As non-essential stores, gyms and sports areas are closed, which forced people to work out at home or outdoor. However, outdoor is not always an option, as it’s very much dependent on weather.
A survey in France showed that around 70% of people above 18 has decreased their fitness activity since the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak. According to another research conducted in the UK, the top 3 highest google searches about fitness-related term between January and April 2020 were resistance bands, exercise bike, and dumbbells.
While people are more health-conscious, the decrease of fitness level actually means that there is a bigger gap between the need of fitness and any possible solutions to it. Certainly, it fuels the momentum of growing digital health tech.
Why is it interesting for digital health tech?
Understanding the momentum behind the trend allows us to see the potential in how to address health & wellness issues.
In CES 2022, many healthcare and consumer tech giants and startups showcased their ambition to bridge the gap between consumers and health solutions, for example, Opteev (Covid-19 breath analyzer), Bulo (lung health assistant), Onera (sleep diagnostic patch system with biomedical chip), etc.
ADK Insights constantly follows trends in the consumer tech industry, as well as health and wellness industry, to provide timely consumer insights and prepare companies for the future. If you would like to exchange thoughts, please contact Nimrod, Dam or Rob at ADK Insights. Feel free to follow our LinkedIn Page for regular updates.