Pokemon Go

I need you to remember that if an app is free, you are the product. 10 years ago, Pokémon Go took the world by storm, shattering five different Guinness World Records. It was the number one app in over 70 countries, and had over 500 million downloads in its first 60 days. Hundreds of millions of people running around their cities, pointing their phone cameras at buildings, parks, and monuments, chasing virtual creatures layered onto the real world. In 2020, Niantic, Pokémon Go's parent company, added a feature called AR mapping, where players were asked to scan real world objects like statues, storefronts, and fountains by doing a full 360 around them with their cameras on. In 2025, Niantic sold Pokémon Go for $3. 5 billion. And this year they announced the game generated over 30 billion images of realworld locations collected by their players. They've turned into a 3D map that is now being used to train AI running autonomous delivery robots.