In a recent report released by International Telecommunication Union (ITU), nearly half of the global population will be using the internet by the end of 2015. There will also be more than 7 billion mobile device subscriptions. The ever-increasing internet and mobile penetration worldwide is making Location-Based Services a big part of peoples' everyday lives. Today, location has become a driving force in the online advertising industry, media & broadcasting industry and mobile apps industry. By analysing consumers’ online behavior, businesses are able to provide locally-relevant services and marketing decisions. Instead of B2B, these industries are morphing into B2C industries. For example, large news aggregators are able to provide customised news items to users based on predictive models aided by location intelligence. Target advertising is using location to provide relevant advertisement to consumers, and allows advertisers to clearly measure the impact of a targeted ad. The disruptive business models of location intelligence will bring along new dimension of automation, machine learning, big data analytics and Internet of Things to geospatial industry. Location intelligence is definitely where the money is and geospatial industry is at an advantage to take the driving seat.
This topic shall be further elaborated at Geospatial World Forum 2016, 23-26 May, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
