Strava shut Fatmap, its 3D outdoor maps app, 20 months after buying it

Strava is an activity-tracking platform and community; Fatmap was a 3D mapping platform for skiers, hikers and bikers.

That a combined Strava with Fatmap's 3D maps behind its subscription beats keeping Fatmap as a standalone app.

Strava acquired Fatmap in January 2023. It said at the time that the products would stay separate at first, then be integrated more closely, with a decision on whether Fatmap would live on as a standalone product.

Strava introduced some Fatmap features, including a premium aerial 3D video recap called Flyover. With a new CEO joining in January 2024, it was prioritizing its core product and community concerns such as leaderboard cheating and the lack of a dark mode.

Fatmap's website and app will be retired on 1 October 2024, with route transfer to Strava until then; users' data will be deleted if they take no action.

TechCrunch noted that maintaining two separate products is more resource intensive than maintaining one.

Strava had said at the deal that it would decide whether Fatmap lived on as a standalone product after integrating them.

With a new CEO from January, Strava was concentrating on making its core product stickier and fixing community concerns like leaderboard cheating and no dark mode.

An acquired product that stays separate is on a clock: either it merges into the core product's value or it is shut once maintaining two codebases stops making sense.

As of 26 June 2024, Fatmap users had until 1 October 2024 to move routes to Strava or export data; after that, unused accounts' data would be deleted permanently. Strava says it will keep porting Fatmap features into its premium subscription over the coming months.