On March 21st, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc, visited Keep, engaging in community for sports and fitness. Ventech China invested in Keep’s Series A financing, as one of the earliest institutional investors of Keep.

Ning WANG, founder and CEO of Keep, shared his stories of developing Keep with Cook. Ning also gave him a No. 80,000,001 commemorative yoga pad as a gift, implying that Cook is the 80,000,001st user. Ning also revealed that by end of this year, Keep would release an international edition, and Cook expressed his great willingness to become the first user of Keep’s international edition.

1) Getting to know how Keep started: Keep trying

Ning first recalled to Cook how Keep was created. “It was actually pretty a coincidence. I used to weigh over 90 kilos, and I really did everything I could to lose weight. At last I managed to lose almost one third of my weight, and during my efforts I communicated with a lot of people, finding that we had strong demand on losing weights and doing sports, yet there was not a product good enough to address the need. I realized this could be chance, and developed the app.”

For the reason that Keep, as a Chinese app, has an English name, Ning explained to Cook: “For whatever you do—losing weight, or others—only one thing matters, and it is keep trying. It is the essential point, so we name our product Keep. It is a simple word, but it means a lot. Even Keep is developed by a domestic team, we still hope that it can benefit people of various cultural backgrounds, and help them to get into a positive sports habit.”

2) Communicating with Keep’s developing team: Keep updating

Cook later met Keep’s team. It has been two years since Keep’s foundation, and now the team has 140 members. Keep focus on sports area, but instead of a traditional physical exercise company, Keep aims to be an internet enterprise driven by data and technologies. Keep maintains a fast upgrading pace, by putting releasing a boutique update biweekly.

At Keep’s fitness center, Ning showed to Cook how Keep is used upon iPhones and Apple Watches, by a Keep lesson on jogging machine. Ning also emphasized the team’s high attention upon the software & hardware platform offered by Apple: “Originally we only had a mobile version, but later as Apple Watch showed up, we were delighted to find that compared to cellphone, this device was able to provide fancy functions like heart rate detecting besides its portability. So, we quickly adapted to Apple Watch.”

3) Willing to become the first user of Keep’s international version: Keep globalizing

As a sports lover, Cook also shared his sports routines with Ning: “I usually wake up at very early in the morning. From Monday to Thursday I do strength training, and on Friday I go jogging.” By keeping a regular exercise, Cook has lost 14 kilos, and enjoys a better spirit. “If I have used Keep, maybe the results can be even better, so I really look forward to the international version.”

Ning also revealed to Cook that although Keep only has a Chinese version now, but across the global it is used by Chinese people located in over 70 countries. At the beginning of 2017, Keep released a Traditional Chinese version, and by the end of 2017, English version will be online. Cook was thrilled to hear the news, and expressed his pleasure to be the first user for the international version. Before leaving the office, Cook received a special gift—a yoga pad printed with No. 80000001, as a gift marking his identity as the first new user after Keep’s user number reaches 80 million.

As the first institutional investor of Keep, Ventech China has high recognition of Keep’s focus upon fitness and its technology & data driven business. Recently, Ventech China has also invested in a modern fitness brand SUPER MONKEY. As people paying more attention to healthy lifestyle, their demand for sports and fitness will also become higher, and Keep will advance to a higher stage by expanding its business overseas.