Peloton says Apple’s App Tracking Transparency is at fault for limiting its growth

Peloton is the latest company to accuse Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature of negatively impacting its business. The company’s main products are internet-connected stationary bicycles and treadmills that allow monthly subscribers to remotely participate in classes via streaming media. Despite revolutionizing the game of at-home fitness, Peloton is focused on expanding and growing. However, Apple’s ad-related privacy changes have caused a hindrance in the company’s growth.

Initially announced at WWDC 20, App Tracking Transparency lets users control whether they want to allow apps to track them across iOS or not. The tech giant only started enforcing App Tracking Transparency with the arrival of iOS 14.5.

Peloton blames App Tracking Transparency for being unable to grow its user base

During its latest earnings call, Peloton claimed that App Tracking Transparency (ATT) is making it difficult to add new subscribers to its services since it cannot target users based on interests.

According to a report from Connect the Watts, the company reported $805.2 million in revenue in this quarter rather than the expected $810.7 million. In addition to this, Peloton app shares also decreased, with a $1.25 loss per share which is higher than the expected $1.07 loss per share, resulting in a total loss of $376 million. The company is now expecting sales of $4.4 billion to $4.8 billion in the fiscal year ending June 2022, down from the $5.4 billion it predicted less than three months ago.

In terms of subscribers, the company saw an 87% increase year-over-year with 2.49 million connected fitness subscribers at the end of the quarter. This category only includes users who own Peloton hardware and pay the monthly fee to access the corresponding content. The entire member base for the company hit 6.2 million subscribers.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said that the App Tracking Transparency feature affects the company’s ability to reach new users, especially for Peloton Digital which refers to people who do not only the hardware but subscriber for classes, similar to Apple Fitness+.