The Future is today
Surely, the vast majority of the world is now aware of the global phenomenon of Pokemon Go, the new game that allows you to catch Pokemon while walking and exploring the real world.
I believe we should think deeper on the subject, and not only focus on the overall success of the game. Well, it may seem overreacting but Pokemon Go might be a key point in our lives that will change everything that we know. For the first time in history, virtual and augmented reality is available to the masses following a freemium business model.
Everyone, as long as they have a smartphone and internet access, can enjoy and discover these technological developments. How was the reaction of the masses? It could not have been better! Suddenly the routine of millions have been affected. They walk to find Pokemon and ultimately they go where the GPS “orders” them.
This represents a great business opportunity. Several reports have been made by Business Insider claiming that Restaurant Owners (for example) are taking advantage of having Pokemon in their places to increase their revenues up to 50%. On the other hand, complaints have been filed by those that have Pokemon on their own houses and are “getting invaded” by strangers that want to catch them. Seems odd?
Probably other companies will follow the same steps of Niantic and Nintendo and try to implement virtual reality on their customer’s lives. Some of these companies will be game focused like Pokemon Go, other’s will try new things. However, one can be certain that the masses want and desire augmented reality. We had the technology, now we have the overall demand to a completely new paradigm. A new era.
Think about it. I bet I am not the only one surrounded by people that never talked one minute about Gaming Apps and now spend hours walking to look for Pikachu together. A community was built around a game that implies that you go outside. On my local town every place that had Pokemon had movement (like I have never seen) even during late-evening.
What do you think will be the impact of this augmented reality wave? Is this success hugely dependent on Nostalgia or it is rather about Technology?
English Teacher @ Rivoli
8 年Pokemon Go is certainly a turning point as it is changing the gaming paradigm. Augmented reality is becoming part of people's lives and with this new "virtual" reality comes both the business opportunities and the dangers inherent to a confusion between what is actually real and not real. We must at all times balance these two perspectives and take into account both the advantages and the pitfalls of this new reality.
RVP @ Slack for Iberia & Italy
8 年Interesting post! In line with your comments: Pokemon GO has taken time from Instagram and other apps. And Gaming as a whole is taking share from social media as its usage time is in decline. You can also see that they are overtaking Twitter in the number of Daily Active Users. The cherry on top of all this is their KPI′s regarding the App′s performance from a business standpoint: Pokémon Go’s retention rates, average revenue per user are double the industry average. If you are interested on the topic you should find this article interesting: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/4-lesoons-from-pok%C3%A9mon-gos-crazy-success-abdul-masri?trk=prof-post Sources: https://seekingalpha.com/article/3991201-instagram-losing-pokemon-go https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pokemon-go-downloads-users_us_5783ef5ae4b0344d51506b9a https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/15/pokemon-gos-retention-rates-average-revenue-per-user-are-double-the-industry-average/
Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Mumbai
8 年congrats
Co-founder & CEO - Replai
8 年Congratulations for the Linkedin Pulse Publication! :)