JAKARTA/ SINGAPORE: Newly graduated from high school and waiting for an entrance test to join the police in September, Jakarta teenager Wahyu Wicaksono found a way to make some money from his love of running.
He became a “Strava jockey”, clocking up running achievements for others on the popular exercise tracking app for a fee.
“I am active on (the social media platform) X and it (the Strava jockey trend) is booming there,” said Wahyu, 17, who started advertising his Strava jockey services almost two weeks ago.
“My hobby is to run so I thought I should take advantage of the situation and make it a business.”
His fledgling venture bagged eight clients in the first six days.
Wahyu charges 10,000 rupiah (US$0.62) per km to run at “Pace 4” (1km in four minutes). For every km run at “Pace 8” (1km in eight minutes), he charges 5,000 rupiah.
Clients pay up before he starts running and he runs using either his own Strava account, or login details they have given him.
His most lucrative job so far, he said, has earned him 100,000 rupiah.
In Indonesia, the trend of selling high-performance Strava data has gone viral, with Strava jockeys selling records on the app of their running, cycling and other exercise accomplishments in exchange for money or items such as energy bars.
“If it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen” is, after all, a motto associated with the app, which allows members to follow one another, and share and showcase their exercise achievements.
Strava users can also take part in virtual “races” to compete for leaderboard positions against other members covering the same distance.
Although the app boasts more than 100 million paid and free subscribers in over 190 countries, according to Strava’s website, there are no major reports of the trend catching on elsewhere.
CLIENTS “ALL OLDER THAN ME”
In Indonesia, the phenomenon appears to have started from a tongue-in-cheek post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that went viral on Jul 3.
“By the way, I’m opening a Strava jockey service!!” the X user @hahahiheho posted, along with an image meant to resemble a Strava screengrab. “But the person who will run is my brother/family member who is a great runner. The price is dependent on the pace, km, etc. DM (direct message) me.”
The image turned out to be of a route from the Grand Theft Auto San Andreas video game.
