MyFitnessPal App Analysis: Digital Business and E-commerce in Ghana

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the MyFitnessPal application, examining its business model, revenue strategies, and value proposition. It identifies the app's advantages, such as user-friendliness and personalized diet tracking, while also addressing limitations like the need for user knowledge and data accuracy. The report explores how MyFitnessPal can contribute to digital business and e-commerce in Ghana, a developing country, by increasing health awareness and promoting digital marketing. It also identifies hurdles to the app's effectiveness in Ghana, such as internet access and user skills, and proposes modifications to the value proposition, revenue model, and processes to overcome these challenges. The report emphasizes the app's potential to boost Ghana's economy and improve the health of its citizens, concluding with a discussion of its overall impact and effectiveness.

Running head: - DIGTAL BUSINESS AND E-COMMERCE
DIGITAL BUSINESS AND E-COMMERCE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The objective of the report is to discuss a fitness application MyFitnessPal. With the
invention of technology, everything in the market is becoming easy. The invention is
taking place in all the fields the starting from the introduction of new websites, smart
wearables technologies and mobile application. With the help of such technologies,
human work is made much easy. The technologies are very much effective and give
the appropriate information when provided with correct statistics and requirements.
Among such invention one of the applications introduced is the MyFitnessPal app
which keeps records and tracks the entire daily consumption of the nutrients. The
application helps the user in maintaining a diet and also keeps the person fit. The
person gets the use and access of the application is free, and the advertisement that
is shown serves as one of the important ways to increase the total revenue. The app
also gives the knowledge of the various group of foods that are there in the diet. The
application also contributes to the digital business and the e-commerce of the
developing country like Ghana. The use of the application helps in the economy of
the developing country. The application also helps the people of Ghana to know
about the diet they need to follow. Some drawbacks need to be improved, but the
overall contribution is much better. The report discusses the application, related
models, its limitations and the opportunities it provides.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Different models related to MyFitnessPal..................................................................................3
Business model.......................................................................................................................3
Revenue model.......................................................................................................................4
Advantages.............................................................................................................................5
Limitation...............................................................................................................................5
Opportunities..........................................................................................................................5
Digital Business and E-commerce in Ghana..............................................................................6
MyFitnessPal contribution in developing the digital business and e-commerce...................6
Effectiveness of the MyFitnessPal app......................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Nowadays with the improve technology lots of application is introduced.
MyFitnessPal is an application, which can be accessed in smartphones.
MyFitnessPal is an application related to health and diet. This application is in
demand as people are more health conscious nowadays. The app helps in
maintaining the diet. The app shows the necessary exercises that need to be done,
and it maintains and tracks the diet. In the year 2005, two great people named Albert
Lee and Mike Lee (Evans 2017) founded MyFitnessPal. The app received its market
reputation in the year 2015, a reputed company that deals with the manufacture of
athletic apparels also acquired it (Rebedew 2015). The application soon started its
premium subscription, which was beneficial for the users. The app premium
subscription helps the users to study their consumption of nutrients and gives them a
deeper knowledge about their health. With the increasing popularity of the app
among the users, it is used by 80 million users (Park et al. 2016). The app is mostly
concerned with the tracking of food and nutrition. The report discusses all the
aspects related to the app named MyFitnessPal. In the report, the topic which is
discussed in the business model, the revenue model, the use of the app in Ghana
and the impacts that it creates the difficulty people facing while using the app and the
solution to overcome the hurdle faced.
Different models related to MyFitnessPal application
Business model
The model was founded in the year 2005 and a very short duration, the app
achieved a position in the marketplace (Azfar, Choo and Liu 2015). The app followed
the business models and strategies proposed by Mike Lee. The main business

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strategy that Lee followed for his app is customer satisfaction and the happiness of
the customers. The business model consists of several key features. The key
partners that are associated with the app are the trainers. One of the key activities
involved in the business model is the electronic method to transfer funds. The fitness
related instruction provides all the fitness solution and matches the client’s needs.
The important strategies that are involved in the models are the relationship with the
customers, easily accessible app by the users, the structure of the cost and the
various clients associated with revenue (Tang et al .2015).
Revenue model
The MyFitnessPal app is an app with lots of popularity in the market as it is
free so many users can access it. The app can gain profit and earn money with the
premium membership provided by the app (Wang et al. 2015). The revenue gained
through the advertisement also helps in earning money. The application comes with
good features for the premium members. The application offers tools at the
advanced level that helps in the tracking of the intake of nutrition and suitable
exercises. The premium member gains the benefits of removing the desired ads
from their application. The application serves as one of the best example related to
free membership (Patel and Scaffidi 2019). The revenue model is serving as the role
model for other popular companies who are interested in the revenue model of the
MyFitnessPal application. The main strategy that the app followed that helped in
gaining more revenue. The app gave free access to the users at the same time the
running ads helps in gaining revenues, and free access gives customer satisfaction.
The app is very helpful at helps the users to set and achieve a set target and
personalised their self. The app comes with such interesting concepts and benefits

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that once a user is using to it the user then willingly desires to take the premium
membership and pay every month.
Advantages
There are several advantages to the use of the MyFitnessPal app. The app is
user friendly and convenient (Choi and Stvilia 2013,). It is very easy for the user to
log in update the requirement and get access to everything. All the changes that are
done in the food database are updated on the website itself. The constant and
immediate feedback helps in monitoring and maintain the health of a person. The
report produced with the help of the app is more effective concerning the calories
intake than the old method. The flexibility of the app that determines that a
personalised diet chart can be maintained accordingly and specific change can be
made whenever it is required (Darby et al. 2016). The app keeps daily record
related to the calorie intake that makes an individual more concern about the
consumption of food with the knowledge of calorie.
Limitation
The limitation of the app is that the app requires and accept that the users
must have a sound knowledge and are loyal towards the app. To use the app
properly, the user must be accustomed to the search and input of the required food
(Faiola and Holden 2017). Knowledge about the food required for the database is
lacking and serves as one of the major limitations of the app. The statistics provided
by the online app is something not sufficient with the required information. The lack
of data serves as one of the limitations.

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Opportunities
The MyFitnessPal app is made in such a way that it provides several
opportunities. The app targets the audience of a specific category who are too much
health conscious. The app can effectively collaborate with other department related
to fitness and build the business. The tracker can be accessed in all the platform.
Several different marketing opportunities come on the way for the MyFitnessPal app
(Ruckenstein and Schüll 2017).
Digital Business and E-commerce in Ghana
MyFitnessPal contribution in developing the digital business and e-commerce
Digital business is related to digital marketing and all the strategies required
for promoting and using a particular product to gain profit and market position. It
completely deals with the Internet-based application. In Ghana with the introduction
of the MyFitnessPal app lots of changes and benefits is noticed in digital business
(Chen et al. 2017). The app is completely based on the internet and access of the
app on smartphones as the app helps in health improvement, which is the major,
concern of everyone. The app helps in increasing the market policies as it provides
free subscription without any membership payment (Ba and Wang 2013). The digital
business is increasing in the marketplace of Ghana with the introduction of the app in
the market. E-Commerce serves as a primary sector that can sell any product.
Digital platforms help in communication with one another. Digital business is also a
platform where an organisation can help a country in achieving a market position and
economy. Since Ghana is a developing country, lots of investors are investing in
developing the country more. E-Commerce helps in gaining a market reputation
(Park et al .2016). The app helps in building a strong knowledge and place in the

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digital market. With the MyFitnessPal app, many other products and brands are
promoted with the help of the advertisement that is show cast in the app.
The economy of Ghana is varied and rich with resources. As the app gains a
lot of revenue through its advertisement, it helps in increases the economy of the
country. The population of Ghana is below the poverty level, and the labour force is
very less. Since the country is continuous, developing but certain lack and deficit are
present there. Ghana lacks behind from over a decade (Souza-Júnior et al. 2016).
The demand in the wages and the hike in the cost of the product is the major cause
for the lacking of Ghana in the economy. The app comes with a lot of new business
model and innovation model that contribute to the economy of the country. The app
is so beneficial for the people that they are used to it and takes the premium
membership, which increases the overall economy of the country. With the use of
the fitness app, people are becoming more health concern. People health is getting
improved, and people can have detailed knowledge about the food they are
consuming. People are getting knowledge of the intake of the nutrients
(Shanmugam, Vellore and Sarasvathithe 2017). Therefore, the use of the fitness app
contributes to the development of the digital business and e-commerce in the
developing country of Ghana.
Effectiveness of the MyFitnessPal application
As Ghana is a developing country, it can be noticed that lots of changes are
required. The changes are required as the population lacks certain qualities which
need to be present. One of the benefits of the introduction of the MyFitnessPal
application in Ghana most of the young seekers use mobile phones for health-
related issues. It was noticed that people lacked all the knowledge that was required

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for the proper functioning of the app. People were not so much health conscious
(Wong et al. 2016). The people of Ghana were not accustomed to various type types
of nutrients. African countries in which Ghana is also included has undergone a
remarkable change and revolution in terms of technology. It was noticed in the year
2013 that mobile phones were becoming the necessity of people of all the groups.
80% of the population were having mobiles phones as people were becoming more
health conscious (James and Whitney 2018).
The main hurdle that arises is the problem in accessing the internet. Another
hurdle that is faced related to the model is that the application offers a free login. The
access to the application is free of cost, but the revenue is collected from the
advertisement that pops up in the application. The young generation having very little
economic sources are not able to access the application (Agapito et al. 2016).
People of Ghana lacked the awareness of such health and fitness related
application. After the introduction of such an app, people were more concerned
about their fitness. People also lack the skills to access all the benefits that are given
in the application.
To discard the problems, the model and the application need to be designed
in a much simpler way. The user in Ghana also lacks the knowledge to understand
the various stages of the tracking and diet process. The stages comprise the food
tracking part that can be edited. The next part is the search for the correct food with
appropriate calories. The last step includes the progress that food that requires to be
consumed to maintain diet. The user in Ghana needs to be educated enough to
learn all the features in the application. Thus the business model needs to be
changed. The application helps in building the concept of using the app daily. The
daily use of the application will overall improve the health-related issues of the

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people. The application also changes the diet and the consumption pattern of the
food. The people of Ghana are much concerned with their data, so the modification
is also done to improve the user-related metrics. The business model of the
MyFitnessPal application mostly follows the concern of the consumers and beliefs in
customer service. The same strategies cannot be implemented everywhere as
developing countries business model need to be more cost-effective. The business
model needs to focus on digital marketing and e-commerce. The overall
performance needs to be effective enough to change the economy of Ghana.
Conclusion
MyFitnessPal is one of the emerging application that is improving and helping
users. In spite of all the drawbacks and limitations of the app, the number of people
manly uses the app. The MyFitnessPal app provides a perfect guide to the users and
helps in the intake of the calories by keeping and the eating habit of the users. The
app educates and makes the user aware of choosing the correct type of food. It also
provides the user with knowledge related to nutrients. It also educates the user about
the two type’s nutrients. The app contains various benefits and comes with a various
solution related to fitness. The app comes with a design solution that helps in
reducing the stages that a user requires before reaching the final step. The app
provides the user with proper guidance and teaches an individual to adopt the proper
eating habit. The fitness-related app has created an impact on the customers of all
generation. In recent times that everyone is concerned with health and wants to be
fit. However, the MyFitnessPal also gives a lot of scope for development in the
developing countries. It improves the digital market business. The app is user
friendly and is fully effective and gives accurate solutions. It has gained access to the
user that is around 150 million (Schadler, Bernoff and Ask 2014). The app is cost-

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effective has it provides free access to the users, and the revenue is earned through
the advertisement. The app is now improved with the availability of all the primary
function in one frame. The app creates numerous opportunities for the developing
country Ghana to improve in the sector of digital business. The overall growth and
development of the countries happen with the use of such an application.
MyFitnessPal is the new trending app in the market with lots of advantages and
develops the business of the developing countries.
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