---
title: "Fitbit Will Provide Free Smartwatches in Singapore"
description: "Fitbit partnered with Singapore to provide free fitness trackers to people in exchange for a monthly fee and access to their health data."
date: "2019-08-26"
modified: "2019-09-03"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/singapore-giving-citizens-free-fitbits"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "fitbit"
  - "health"
  - "the digest"
  - "wearables"
---

# Fitbit Will Provide Free Smartwatches in Singapore

![Fitbit partnered with Singapore to provide free fitness trackers to people in exchange for a monthly fee and access to their health data.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/singapore-giving-citizens-free-fitbits.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Fitbit/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Opt-Out

Fitbit just partnered with the government of Singapore to provide hundreds of thousands of citizens with free fitness-tracking smartwatches.

Of course, there's a catch. In exchange for the free $100 smartwatch, people who sign up for the new "Live Healthy SG" program will need to cough up a $10 monthly subscription to Fitbit, and agree to [share all the health data](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/bosses-spying-employees-fitness-trackers>) it collects with the government, [according to *Digital Trends*](<https://www.digitaltrends.com/health-fitness/fitbit-singapore-health-contract-fitness-trackers/>).

The benefits for the government and for Fitbit are clear: smartwatch-collected [user ](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/fitbit-data-witness-murder>)data is valuable, and Fitbit expects to make millions of dollars off the deal. But it's harder to identify the long-term benefits for the people actually paying to participate in the high-tech fitness program.

## Major Contract

Fitbit hasn't shared how much it expects to make off of the deal with Singapore, but [CEO James Park told *CNBC*](<https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/21/fitbit-to-supply-trackers-to-hundreds-of-thousands-in-singapore.html>) that he expects hundreds of thousands of people to sign up, making up a major portion of the company's pivot to subscription payment plans.

"We think this program could reach up to one million people," Park told *CNBC*.

## Pay To Play

The government-endorsed subscription plan could be a bid to turn the company's fortunes around — *Digital Trends* reports that the company's smartwatch sales dropped 27 percent from 2018.

But while the program is likely to work out well for Fitbit, it's hazier whether [the trackers will provide](<https://www.wired.com/story/science-says-fitness-trackers-dont-work-wear-one-anyway/>) actionable health data for people in Singapore — something that the government seems to have spent less time sorting out than the business angle.

*Editor's note 9/3/2019: This article has been updated to clarify that Fitbit is providing the free fitness trackers.*

**READ MORE:** [Singapore’s government will give every citizen a free Fitbit, with a catch](<https://www.digitaltrends.com/health-fitness/fitbit-singapore-health-contract-fitness-trackers/>) \[*Digital Trends*\]

**More on wearables:** *[China Gives GPS-Tracking Wristwatches to 17,000 Kids](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-gps-wristwatches-kids>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)