Equinox ($PRIVATE:EQUINOX) is reportedly closing in on a jumbo round of private equity funding to launch a digital platform to compete with Peloton ($PTON). While there are plenty of other competitors to these two companies, for some reason fate has bonded them together against traditional gyms. And a comparison of alternative data of each begins to generate some interesting questions as both fight to scale up with new users.

Questions like...

Will size disparity matter at all?

Things get interesting when you find out that Equinox employs roughly eight times the amount of people that Peloton does - sure, one operates from users' homes, and the other requires people to physically get up and go to the gym. And despite the headcount being out of whack by so much, the two companies are hiring at about the same rate, relatively. Competition to hire and grow for the same types of jobs could be why Equinox thinks it needs a digital platform.

Should Equinox sweat the fact that Peloton is earning more Facebook Likes?

That's a major reason why one would want to up its online game and presence. Peloton's Facebook following keeps increasing and Equinox brands are just flatline and stagnant. We may have figured out the mystery! That is, until you look at Twitter followers, which just complicates the whole thing again.

What should we make of the fact that Soul Cycle has the most Twitter followers?

Even though Equinox has twice as many followers as Peloton, it's not gaining traction. Peloton and its hideous ad are, which adds more fuel to this intriguing fire. Be sure to check out the full breadth of our data to find out how so many people want to follow Soul Cycle and what's going on with PURE Yoga, if you're interested. 

About the Data: 

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales, and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue, and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales. 

Further Reading: 

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