Harvard Business School published an interview Christian Camerota conducted with Willy Shih, Robert and Jane Czik Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration, about the industrial implications of the viral sensation that’s sweeping the nation—Pokémon Go.
The mobile augmented reality game has become such a smash that UK analytics firm Similar Web reports that the app “had been installed on nearly 11 percent of all android phones in the United States” in just its first week.
Shih spent nearly three decades in the private sector at IBM and Eastman Kodak, among other companies. His current research into “disruptive technology and technological strategy” makes him uniquely qualified to dissect Pokémon Go.
Shih believes one of the potential long-term impacts of the game is its unintentional introduction to augmented reality for many users. “Pokémon Go superimposes geospacial information in an integrated way, allowing the game creators to put these monsters in exact locations and in physical spots of significance.” He adds, “It’s a superb demonstration of what’s possible with modern smartphones loaded with technology like GPS, compasses, accelerometers, and orientation sensors.”
Pokémon Go also represents an enormous financial opportunity in terms of the “platform’s ability to pull traffic to particular locations.” Shih believes “it could fundamentally change the face of things like sponsorship and mobile advertising.”
In addition to the game’s immense advertising potential, Niantic (the developers of the game) will be able to compile an “immense pool of data” that they can mine, which Shih finds frightening. “I don’t necessarily want people to know that much about me.”
Safety concerns aside, Shih elaborates on the ethical issues Pokémon Go engenders with regard to the privacy of its millions of users. “In exchange for these cool games and services, users have to give up their data and I’m not sure consumers always appreciate the extent to which their data is collected and is already available for sale out on the internet.”