Geolocation Intelligence: Why Won’t Google Do It
Gyana is a startup that focuses on Big data generated by human movement- a kind of geospatial data generated by IoT. But why geolocation sciences are important?
Have you seen those detective series or thriller movies where they drop a pin and a picture on a map and try to draw a story over time? That is kind of geolocation sciences.
Most people think geolocation data or spatial data is about maps and images — it isn’t. It is a kind of data science where a physical object is represented by numerical values in a geographic coordinate system, almost everything that is real can be represented in this manner. Naturally, by time series and many other methods, you can see patterns, anomalies and glimpses of the future — since the physical world is bound by physical laws.
For instance, the movement pattern of a person is in a radius that is determined by means of transport. Let us say — you find 100 people in a village with no trains or buses, so they may not move more than a few miles every day if you look at their position every day. However, if there are fast lanes and cars nearby- suddenly their radius of movement is in order of several miles. So now you see a different pattern. You can do this line of reasoning for satellite data, automated cars, power lines. You get the point….
Naturally, this lends itself to geo-positioning transactions, detecting frauds, planning infrastructure, identifying transport loopholes, gauging economic activity, predicting natural calamity and everything else in the world.
To be fair, army intelligence globally has been doing geolocation sciences for a very long time ( called ABI — “activity-based intelligence” ) but it is now becoming mainstream thanks to cloud-based GPUs and Big data infrastructure getting better. Forbes said it perfectly in July 2018 — “ Geospatial Analytics Will Eat The World, And You Won’t Even Know It”. A fraud detection email, a better driving route for you or a simple economic decision all are being powered by this. The geospatial data industry is growing at a CAGR of 18.2% approximately year on year and is set to reach 175 billion by 2027 — as per REUTERS. Out of this huge spectrum- Gyana focusses on the geospatial data that is created only by human movement.
So why won’t Google do it? I mean are they already doing it?
We get this question a lot — so does every startup in every sector! “Why won’t Google do it?”. Well technically speaking they can do anything but they have not, so far — right? Because they focus on core propositions and a few other things.
By the time they wake up and decide to butt heads with these small new guys –It is kind of late. So, in a large corporate you have a middle manager with nothing at stake working on a project to the best of their ability ( or not ). Plus, the hierarchical, bureaucracy issues, impair speed manifolds. In a startup, you move at light speed because there are tremendous urgency and no friction. By the time the giants wake up to take notice, you have moved so far that they either buy from you or buy you! Now despite Microsoft Teams, Slack is still de-facto for all organizations I know. Despite Google Drives, Box is doing very well each year. This is actually very well explained in Reid Hofman’s book “Blitzscaling”. I think eventually it works out well for both the Big Guys and the startups if they kind of know how to make it work, that is. Otherwise, they turn it into a zero-sum game.
Many political and economic uncertainties are coming up — what will Gyana do in 2019?
Gyana is gearing up for an intense year, we are expanding, recruiting and going crazy! Although a massive focus last year was to race to meet all goals, this year is focussing on the scalability of processes and structures. We are also going to do a lot more business in the USA. This is going to be the first year of expansion- with many more to come I hope!.
I am excited and nervous at the same time and I know that this will be a phenomenal time for all of us. We will grow as people as we start to see the limits of our capability in some areas and we will also be pleasantly surprised to see how much more we are capable than we ourselves thought, in some other areas. My gut feel is — one will outweigh the other, let us see which side wins!
As for uncertainties-they always exist anyways. In case they get worse: well the storm takes out the weeds. Every such period has helped the good businesses survive and not-so-robust ones to not make it. It can create opportunities for some and death for others. I am looking forward to the acid test! This turmoil will show us what we are made of and I am excited to find out myself.
Let this be a time of unstoppable attitude, mind-blowing progress, and undeniable success. I hope we all march into our lives with full intentions of owning it. Let us totally own it!
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. “ Marianne Williamson
References:
https://www.reuters.com/brandfeatures/venture-capital/article?id=29591
