THE DREAM IN ACTION

The image above contains some of the most interesting data a business could have on an individual. This is heat map of my foursquare checkin’s in San Francisco. It’s powerful data, and it’s only static. Here in lies the info to make assumptions & predictions about my behavior that will changes services I use and businesses I interact with drastically. As a location drivin transportation company it is data like this that will allow us to fundamentally disrupt our market.

This information did not exist even 12 months ago. The services that now collect this data with decent contextual awareness are just recently being enabled by the right devices & the right changes in user behavior. The checkin is a beautiful thing & not just for the foursquare’s and Yelp’s of the world; it’s services like ours that may stand to benefit the most. Here are a few areas that I get most excited about when contemplating how to apply this data to make your life easier and our business stronger…

Marketing

Think about how accurate user location data changes the marketing game. If presumably I checkin to 50% of the venues that I visit on a daily basis, this map does a pretty good job of showing someone where not to advertise if they’re trying to reach me. It’s clear where I spend my time, and it’s clear where I don’t. Now I know not everyone uses these social location services but when this data gets aggregated across a particular demographic or user population you get very targeted results on how to reach that customer group offline.

When applying context (which I discuss next) in these marketing channels you can almost tell what a person will be doing, where they’re doing it, and when. The advertising dollars saved are enough to get excited.

Context

The next factor of awesomeness that this particular map doesn’t yet capture is a sense of contextual awareness. How easily, with foursquare’s new categorical breakdown of venues, could you tell me where are the bars I’m going to, where are the business meetings I’m attending, where are the houses that I’m hangin’ at, etc. What is context:

• time
• activity type
• social

These contextual filters provide yet a deeper layer of understanding to the consumers behavior. Each layer of context that is added to this map the more powerful it will become. The opt-in checkin that foursquare has created is brilliant because it enable someone to feel very comfortable with sharing tons of data. Which in turn allows services to create more value for those users.

What we’re excited about is tying checkins together and realizing that certain combinations of checkin types require different types of transportation and different experiences. By understanding context around checkins we can understand how best to serve our users and be efficiently available for them, when they want us, without them having to tell us ahead of time. For example, you’re at your favorite sushi restaurant with your significant other, we think you’ll likely head to the movie theatre and we’re happy and ready to take you there :)

Logistics Optimization

With an understanding of where our users spend time, and when during the day those transitions occur, we have the ability to offer an incredibly efficient and simple service. As MG at TechCrunch said this week in a post about social location features; the check-out feature or the designation that you’re actually leaving a venue, will likely come very soon. Great! This makes it even easier for us to offer service at the exact times, in the exact locations, that users may want.

With our Uber fleet that is growing quickly, it’s quite possible that we can use information like this that is either publicly available or shared by our users for this specific purpose, to never have to wait for a cab again. With a single click we may know what type of service you would want depending on the context of the venue your checking into & out of.

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The opportunities for this type of contextually filtered data to influence location driven services like ours it unreal. I’m so excited for things like background processing in iOS4, and check-out features from our beloved check-in apps. The real time monitoring of this data is really where it’s at and the better the technology gets and the more transparent the user behaviors become, the smoother overall experience we’ll be able to offer.