SpotRank, a data service offered by Skyhook, taps hundreds of millions of location points to predict “the density of people in predefined urban square-block areas worldwide at any hour, any day of the week.”
In a recent interview, Ted Morgan (@tedmorgan), co-founder and CEO of Skyhook, discussed potential applications for density data.
The SpotRank data is incredibly rich and it’s also new. So, there’s a lot of experimentation going on and pilot [programs] using it as ways to suggest hot places to go at the moment or even the best time to go to a restaurant before it gets busy.
A lot of brands and advertising agencies are looking at ways they can target based on this kind of human density data. We’re working with retailers as they figure out where to put their next store based on pedestrian foot traffic.
Daytime movement and demographic data is something that has never existed before. It’s a gold mine, except it takes a while to change how everyone’s been using people data. It’s still in the early days, but it’s incredibly valuable, and it’s frankly why all the big platforms are fighting to protect and control their own location data — they know this SpotRank-like information is going to drive most of the marketing and planning and behavioral analysis going forward.
For more of Morgan’s thoughts on location data and services, check out the full interview in the following video:
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