About R-bies

For over 40 years, R-bies Co., Ltd. has been at the forefront of the athletic industry of Japan, offering an extensive range of innovative services to enhance the experience for both runners and race organizers. The company shows its dedication to enhancing the running community by presenting various web and app applications, tailored to sports enthusiasts. With over 4 million users, its RUNNET portal is one of largest web platforms for runners in the country. Their collection of running apps help users to track and share runs, and even use GPS data to predict time of crossing a race finish line. Their 'run&' app is the world’s first running app for couples. 

All products presented by R-bies are popularizing the concept of the ‘citizen runner’ and promoting health-conscious lifestyles, yet one of them puts user’s emotions in front. The ‘.finisher’ is a unique service that records the entire track of a runner on video, allowing to playback the race with time, place, and performance. Using the race and participant details runners can find the video on the website within a few minutes after they cross a finish line. If athletes want to download the video and keep it on hand, they can use the paid option and rewatch the record at any time.

Enhancing racer’s experience

To meet an ambitious goal of enabling runners to re-experience their race, R-bies needed to link precise Satellite maps with VR elements. The team quickly realized that they were looking for a flexible location intelligence provider with up-to-date maps, and full control over customization features. Additionally, the team had limited developer resources and tight timelines. To work efficiently, R-bies needed to find a service that would be powerful yet simple to build with. 

Re-experiencing a race with Mapbox visualization features

Mapbox provided the combination of customizability, performance capabilities, and usability that R-bies needed to power the ‘.finisher’ platform. Its engine, built with Mapbox, consists of several components. After starting a marathon the runners' time data is collected by detecting the radio frequency identification tags, placed on athletes’ mats. Server aggregates the data and transfers it to the ‘.finisher’, where Mapbox Satellite serves as the basemap. Using the Three.js animated 3D graphics are rendered on top of Mapbox Maps. Afterwards, the virtual experience is turned into a video, allowing users to enjoy memories of their run.

Highly engaging experience is provided by rich visualizations, powered by Mapbox. Video directions and zoom levels change as the race progresses, as well as the lighting, adjusting through the day, from daylight to night, and back to the sunrise. Playbacks also embed custom markers and photos of events along the race, turning videos into enjoyable memories.

Fast and smooth product release with Mapbox Documentation 

R-bies team was shorthanded and had no previous experience working with Mapbox. However thanks to Mapbox Documentation they quickly gained a deeper understanding, and built the groundbreaking server from scratch in a year. 

Mapbox drives 90% racers involvement 

R-bies remains a major force in the evolution of the running industry thanks to its deep understanding of users’ experience and regular releases of innovative products. Thousands of people participate in marathons and races in Japan and 90% of them visit the ‘.finisher’ page after a race. Such high user involvement metric was reached thanks to highly engaging experience for runners, achieved by combining Mapbox location tools and R-bies technologies.