Nike Run Club to Stop Service in Chinese Mainland Next Month

The Nike Run Club (NRC), a running app owned by Nike, said on Wednesday that it would stop offering its services in the Mainland of China as of July 8, 2022 due to business adjustments.

NRC said that it will provide data export services for runners if necessary while Garmin’s sports equipment will cease data synchronization with NRC from now on.

Nike told The Paper that the company announced on June 7 that it would start the transformation of its own digital platform in July. This transformation is aimed at the overall digital ecological transformation of the Chinese market and all platforms have been adjusted, not just the NRC. One source familiar with Nike also revealed that the NRC is temporarily offline, as it is transferring data and technology development from US-based servers to the company’s departments in Shenzhen, China.

In November 2021, the Nike Digital Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (now renamed Nike China Technology Center) was established in Shenzhen with a total investment of 1.3 billion yuan ($194.35 million). At present, the research and development center has completed its first stage of to deploy staff resources as well as software and hardware resources.

The center plans to complete its deployment within the next three years and to recruit hundreds of engineers locally to provide personalized services for local consumers.

The transformation of Nike’s digital platform to be carried out in July will mainly include an upgrade to Nike App’s software and member services, as well as upgrading the Chinese version of limited edition sneaker purchase platform, SNKRS App, as well as Nike.com. The company will also increase its investment and help build up a WeChat business ecology. Nike has its own mini program and a Training Club mini program already listed on WeChat.

Nike said that these digital platforms will also connect seamlessly with its membership services and experiences of all its offline stores, including Nike direct-sale stores and partner stores.

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The company’s results for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2022 disclosed on March 21 showed that during the reporting period, the company’s revenue was $10.9 billion, an increase of 5% year-on-year. Driven by double-digit growth in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, the sales of Nike-brand digital businesses increased by 19%. In addition, during the reporting period, its unaudited revenue of Greater China was $2.16 billion, a decrease of 5% year-on-year.