American location intelligence firm Radar has built an all-in-one location platform, with geofencing, geocoding, and maps. Companies like Panera, DICK’s Sporting Goods, T-Mobile, and Zillow use Radar’s SDKs and APIs to power location-based experiences cost-effectively across hundreds of millions of devices worldwide.
“The location space has historically been filled with ad tech companies and data monetization companies. We set out to change that. From our founding in 2016, we’ve been committed to leading the industry in privacy, security, and compliance,” says Nick Patrick, Co-founder & CEO of Radar in an interview with Geospatial World.
Geofencing has been a boon for industries worldwide. With customization for customers leading the way, the accuracy in data analysis becomes foremost important for any business. How does your hyper-accurate geofencing platform aid in better geofencing practices?
Geofencing drives business outcomes. For example, we’ve helped companies like DICK’s Sporting Goods and Whataburger increase app engagement, retention, and revenue.
But out-of-the-box iOS and Android geofencing are limited. For example, you can only register 20 circular geofences at a time on iOS, accuracy is generally limited to 100 meters. This makes geofencing difficult to build in-house. It also makes it difficult to use geofencing for more advanced use cases, like in-store app experiences or order-ahead arrival detection.
That’s where Radar’s Geofencing Platform comes in. Radar’s geofencing platform helps developers go beyond iOS and Android limits, with accuracy down to 5 meters, support for unlimited geofences and polygon geofences, and customizable tracking options to maximize accuracy and battery efficiency.
While we’ve long been the industry leader in geofencing, we also recently launched the Radar Maps Platform, a cost-effective alternative to Google Maps Platform and Mapbox. For the first time, a single location platform supports both full-stack geofencing and mapping.
Radar is between 50-90% less expensive than Google Maps Platform and Mapbox. In general, we’re helping our enterprise customers cut their maps bill in half. This makes it easier for those companies to invest in geofencing. For example, Bojangles cut their Google Maps bill by 60% by switching to Radar, funding an investment in geofencing.
Data privacy has become a burning issue as people around the world lack awareness of the control of their personal information. This is leading to increased fraud and scams. How does Radar ensure control over data privacy and restrict fraud?
The location space has historically been filled with ad tech companies and data monetization companies. We set out to change that. From our founding in 2016, we’ve been committed to leading the industry in privacy, security, and compliance.
Some of the ways we do that:
As a SaaS company, our goal is to help customers build great product experiences with location context. We do not sell any data we collect, and we do not share location data with customers.
The Radar SDK only collects location data if end users opt into location permissions, and does not collect personally identifiable information like name or email by default. End users can opt-out at any time by revoking location permissions and, under GDPR, also exercise their right to be forgotten.
The platform allows customers to minimize the data they collect, collecting and retaining only the location data relevant to their use case: store visits for shopping apps, airport visits traveling detection for travel apps, and so on.
What is the future of logistics and real-time navigation according to you?
There are two major developments that are likely to follow suit:
First, the accuracy and volume of location data will only continue to increase, and companies will need tools like Radar to collect, process, and analyze that data.
Second, companies will be under more and more pressure to be efficient. That means companies will need to choose scalable, cost-effective tools like Radar for location tracking and navigation.
As location intelligence becomes more and more important, businesses across industries are looking to incorporate these platforms into their business models. What are the new market trends in the location intelligence segment?
Today, much consumer location intelligence (e.g., for retail, restaurants, and real estate) is still powered by third-party data. We expect that the future of consumer location intelligence, from user segmentation to foot traffic analytics to site selection, will be powered by first-party data. As the privacy-first, all-in-one location platform, we hope to play a role in this transition in the coming years.
What is the roadmap ahead for Radar?
Our vision is location infrastructure for every product and service.
We plan to deepen our product capabilities and extend our lead in location infrastructure. That means more investments in maps, geofencing, and location intelligence.
We are also planning to enter new verticals. While we’ve historically been focused on verticals like retail and restaurants, verticals like gaming, travel, and logistics will also be a priority in the coming years.
