Location targeting and intelligence company Skyhook has developed what it says is a more accurate methodology for geotargeting and in-store validation. The company is rolling this out under the banner of its “Skyhook Context” offering.
Skyhook was the original location provider for Android and iOS devices before Google and Apple brought those capabilities in-house.
The company says it has built associations between millions of places of interest and its global WiFi database, which has MAC addresses for more than 2 billion WiFi routers worldwide. Skyhook VP David Bairstow described it to me as “next-gen geofencing.”
In addition to more accurate location, Bairstow said that the company is building a better venue database as a byproduct of its approach. He asserted that 40 to 50 percent of venue locations in third-party databases today are currently not good enough to do store visitation metrics and competitive analytics. This is especially true for smaller footprint locations (e.g., Starbucks locations). He added that store visitation efforts typically capture nearby individuals, rather than just people in-store.
Skyhook now can tell with “high confidence,” Bairstow explained, when a mobile users has crossed a venue or store threshold. “We’re not catching people nearby.”
Comments