Today, step counter apps are ubiquitous — it is a core feature of many a fitness app and both Apple and Google have their own versions of the concept. However, just a few years ago step counters were still in their infancy with plenty of room for trailblazing innovation and creativity.

Founded by Yves Benchimol in 2019, WeWard has been one of the early pioneers in step counting and at the forefront of most of the developments in the space.

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Today, WeWard counts — I know my puns are hilarious! — 25 million users. It is fair to say that WeWard is one of the most inspiring success stories in the industry, and I wanted to find what is behind this success — what has made the app so sticky, and how did Yves and his team grow it to where it is today?

So after some back and forth and some timetable Tetris, Yves sat with me for an interview, where he, with fiery enthusiasm might I add, retraced WeWard’s journey in engrossing detail, from its genesis to its international success, a story that started in Paris and took Yves to the Big Apple.

The beginning

An engineer by training, Yves used to spend his days behind a screen — cue in intense blue light and a pile of Starbucks coffee cups. But he quickly noticed something troubling about the technology that was being developed around him. “Most of the technology being developed was making us less active — like ordering an Uber or ordering food directly to your doorstep,” Yves explains. And this trend of inactivity only exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic when people became used to having pretty much anything and everything delivered.

“Most of the technology being developed was making us less active — like ordering an Uber or ordering food directly to your doorstep.”

In 2019, Yves decided to build a technology that would address this growing problem, and WeWard was born. The app was designed as “a motivational step counter” built around three core features: rewards (points convertible to charity donations, gift cards, or cash), social competition (leaderboards and friend challenges), and gamification (badges and collectibles).

How WeWard grew from a media darling in France to a U.S. powerhouse

Year by year, WeWard evolved, adding new features and expanding to new markers. As Yves outlines, the core levers of WeWard’s growth strategy were (and in many ways continue to be) word-of-mouth referrals as well as proactive media outreach. These days, the app is present across 29 countries and reaches 25 million users globally; it also employs approximately 60 people spread between two offices in Paris and New York.

Celebrity partnerships: The key to the U.S. market

But an exceptional product alone would not have been enough to scale to 25 million users and break into the U.S. market — a notoriously tough nut to crack for outside competitors. When Yves arrived in the USA back in 2023, he faced a harsh reality: “the U.S. market is way more competitive. We were not as competitive as when we launched in France in 2019. When we arrived in the US in 2023, the product was not as innovative.”

The solution came through an unexpected partnership. Venus Williams, the tennis legend, not only became an ambassador for WeWard but also invested in the company. “We immediately felt a connection because she is promoting a lot about physical well-being but also mental health,” Yves explains.

Why WeWard partnered with Venus Williams

The Venus Williams partnership became what Yves calls WeWard’s “celebrity growth engine,” and it fundamentally changed how Americans perceived WeWard: “U.S. users feel closer to the app because of Venus Williams,” Yves notes. The collaboration solidified WeWard’s position as a top player in the health and fitness vertical across both the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store.

“The U.S. market is way more competitive. We were not as competitive as when we launched in France in 2019. When we arrived in the US in 2023, the product was not as innovative.”

As Yves has previously written for Business of Apps in a post where he outlines WeWard’s celebrity partnership playbook, “while the concept is not necessarily groundbreaking, partnering with celebrities is a growth hack that can turn emerging apps into vertical leaders through driving brand visibility and long-term customer loyalty.”

Combined with charity partnerships, university outreach, and organic social media growth (especially on Instagram and TikTok), this quadrumvirate of strategies helped WeWard reach 2 million users in the US market, where Yves believes they are now “the biggest one” in both the reward as well as step tracking space.

The European privacy advantage

While breaking into the American market took cultural adaptation and celebrity partnerships, WeWard maintained one key differentiator from their European roots, namely a strict approach to user privacy.

“We are a company from France and believe that the framework of privacy in Europe is well developed, especially with GDPR,” Yves explains. “We have decided from the beginning of the company to not sell the data of our users.”

This decision, while potentially costly from a revenue perspective, simplifies their privacy framework and builds user trust. WeWard implements what Yves calls a three-pillar framework: consent management for all data collection, data minimization (collecting only what is needed), and signing Data Protection Agreements with all third partners.

Most notably, WeWard applies these European privacy standards globally. “Even if the legislation is not as protecting as GDPR,” Yves explains, WeWard maintains the same privacy protections for users worldwide, turning European regulatory requirements into a competitive advantage in the privacy-conscious era.

On September 18th, Yves will be delivering App Promotion Summit NYC’s keynote address. Join him there to hear WeWard’s story live and learn more about celebrity partnership as a growth engine for apps.