Operators are already aware of the success of Pokemon Go, with the likes of Sprint and Reliance Jio using the game to attract customers to their stores. But there are still untapped opportunities that Niantic CEO John Hanke wanted to focus on, such as promoting direct carrier billing and improving location tech.
At the moment with direct carrier billing “we have only scratched the surface”, he said, hoping that this can be used in more markets as the company pushes for broader adoption. Hanke also wants location-based tech such as beacons to improve, as he believes this will greatly help operators, many of whom have paid for sponsored locations.
He talked up the partnerships Niantic has made with operators like Reliance Jio, which he described as an innovative player, as well as Sprint and Globe, all of whom have sponsored locations to draw customers to their retail stores.
According to him, there is great opportunity for operators to acquire new customers and decrease churn through the game – which has been downloaded to 650 million devices and generated 44,600 terabytes of data.
“The game demands a robust network and rewards high capacity data services, it also requires advanced location services and mapping,” he said in The Content Gold Rush keynote.
The executive also said the company is planning a new version of its AR game Ingress, which was the inspiration for Pokemon Go, and more projects that will be announced later in the year.
