In May of this year three young Argentines launched Pasito, a app that rewards users for walking and that, in less than a month, it surpassed 300,000 users and 600 participating businesses on the neighboring shore. This rapid growth and its viralization did not take long to cross borders and among the thousands of users who began to see Pasito on their social networks was Valentina Bronzieri, an Argentine living in Uruguay.
The young woman, who is an economist and works in the technology area, identified an opportunity to replicate the model in the local market and decided to contact the founders.
Thus, after meeting with Santiago Schamberger, Lisandro Schamberger and Renata Poletti, and validating that there were businesses interested in joining, This past June 17, the application was launched in Uruguay.
As Bronzieri explained to Coffee and Business The application, which is free for users and locals, is based on a reward system, where for every 1,000 steps walked, the user obtains one point. Then those points They can be exchanged for different prizes or discounts at participating businesses. For reference, He indicated that a coffee usually costs around 25 points. Furthermore, lThe application allows you to set daily physical activity goals and sends notifications to encourage users to meet them.
For this, Pasito synchronizes with the phone’s health app to count the steps taken.
“What the application seeks is for people to go out for a walk, to discover places, the city,” said the Argentine.
On the other hand, explained the person responsible for the application in Uruguay, businesses find in the solution a tool to gain visibility and attract potential clients.
This is achieved by the frequency of use of the application, since for the steps to be credited correctly, users must enter the platform every day.
Furthermore, added to this is the possibility of measure promotion performance carried out within the platform, through a control panel where each establishment can monitor the number of redemptions made and additional purchases.
Regarding the monetization model behind the app, Bronzieri explained that it will begin to run once the platform reaches further consolidation in the market. Among the main sources of income will be advertising spaces within the application and the development of challenges sponsored by brands. Besides, The startup is working on the development of Pasito Empresas, a corporate version of the platform that would allow companies to implement a personalized version of the application for their collaborators, with internal challenges and competitions between teams or areas and incentive systems.
The first figures in Uruguay, in which areas it is available and what can be exchanged
In the first 24 hours after its launch The application reached 23,000 downloads, ranking second in the apps most downloaded in Uruguay, with an audience that is mainly between 25 and 34 years old
Furthermore, already It has 50 active businesseswhich include cafes, bars, restaurants, gyms, yoga centers, pilates, tennis classes and ice cream parlors.
Although the presence of stores is more concentrated in Montevideo, Pasito already has participating businesses in Durazno, Tacuarembó, Canelones and Maldonado and the entrepreneur’s idea is that The proposal continues to expand to reach the entire country. At the same time, they are working to ensure that the points generated in Argentina and Uruguay can be used in both countries.
