MyFitnessPal has seen a hefty increase in users and engagement since January of this year (2014 resolutions, anyone?).  And with more fitness tackers working well with MyFitnessPal, it’s building up an integrated ecosystem for those seeking healthy lifestyles through metrics and pattern recognition.

MyFitnessPal doesn’t want its journey to end with giving people a service or an app that helps them get started, they want to provide a means for people to be able to stick with their goals. They’re hoping to do just that with the acquisition of Sessions, a company that specializes in pairing people with coaches to help them make exercising a habit.

The acquisition presents MFP’s millions of users to Sessions, and provides a more comprehensive suite of solutions to those users.

“Our members have told us they want expert advice and accountability.  Acquiring Sessions gives us a team that’s been thinking about coaching for years to help us jumpstart our own coaching initiatives,” said Mike Lee, co-founder of MyFitnessPal.  “This move positions MyFitnessPal to provide yet another layer of offerings to what we already have: the largest-ever set of health data and tools, and a living, breathing study in how to make healthy living the new normal for millions of people.”

This is MyFitnessPal’s first acquisition.  The integration of Sessions’ programs with what MyFitnessPal offers aims to entice more people to get active as 90 percent of those who use Sessions’ programs stuck with it until the end.

Connected device market trends

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This is only the latest acquisition in the bubbling space encompassing connected devices, growing in its appeal to consumers. The barrage of gadgets and services has created an opportunistic but fragmented market, and as the connected world matures, we’ll see pockets of consolidation to enable complete commoditization for affordability and feature unification. The health and fitness sector has been particularly active in the connected device market, with an early start for smartphone integration and wearable tech. Merging efforts in this market will certainly aid in user adoption and retention.

“We’re always looking for ways to provide users with a more complete solution for their health and fitness goals,” Lee tells us. “This acquisition will ultimately result in our ability to offer users another layer of value to help them live healthy lives: the accountability and expertise of personalized coaching. Coaching can take many different forms and involve experts from nutritionists to personal trainers; we’re working to find the best way to offer it to our users.” 

“MFP is a continuation for us, an opportunity to build the scale and reach of Sessions way beyond what we originally conceived,” Nick Crocker, founder of Sessions, wrote in a blog post.