Pokémon Go plans ‘sponsored locations’ as hit game drives traffic to stores

‘Pokéstops’ and ‘gyms’, the real-world points-of-interest players of the hit augmented reality game ‘Pokemon Go’ navigate to, will soon include “sponsored locations” promoted by advertisers, reports Financial Times.

“There is a second component to our business model at Niantic, which is this concept of sponsored locations”, Mr. Hanke said, where companies “pay us to be locations within the virtual game board — the premise being that it is an inducement that drives foot traffic.”

Some companies, like Best Buy, are already trying to tap into the foot traffic from the game before they can even pay to do so:

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