For the past two decades, location data has helped power the digital economy. It’s the quiet assistant that guided us to the nearest coffee shop, called a ride to our door, let us check in at a stadium, and ensured goods were delivered efficiently. But location is no longer just a layer on a map—it’s becoming something as valuable as a balance-sheet asset.
More and more, a company’s ability to know where its people and assets are in real time is starting to influence margins, reduce fraud losses, and improve customer satisfaction—on par with inventory management or staffing strategy. What once functioned as digital plumbing has evolved into an economic lever, one that executives are now learning to measure, govern, and optimize.
Nick Patrick, CEO and co-founder of Radar, puts it plainly: “Geolocation is the most important signal of the next decade. It touches everything from fraud prevention and logistics to how companies personalize experiences.”
When Map Tools Became A Location Intelligence Bottleneck And Budget Drain
Many enterprises still depend on the same geolocation systems they adopted a decade ago. They’re fine for plotting routes and powering store locators. But those tools weren’t built for the speed, scale, and intelligence modern use cases require.
The biggest pain point is economics, not precision. In 2018, Google announced a sweeping overhaul of its Maps API pricing under the new “Google Maps Platform.” APIs were consolidated and free tiers were sharply reduced. The old $0.50-per-1,000-calls model jumped, in many cases, to $5 to $10 per 1,000 calls—effectively a 10× to 20× increase for certain services. Google also introduced mandatory API key registration and billing account linkage, eliminating the “anonymous free” usage many developers had relied on. In the years that followed, Google made smaller adjustments and regional changes, but costs never returned to previous levels. In fact, higher-tier enterprise plans and differentiated pricing for Dynamic Maps, Routes, and Places pushed expenses even higher for heavy users like rideshare, logistics, and travel companies.
Google effectively transformed a quasi-public data utility into a high-margin, metered product. It was a lesson in the economics of digital infrastructure dependence—showing that access to data itself can be monetized, often with steep price elasticity.
This shift has forced CIOs to rethink not only their vendors, but their entire strategy for how location data moves through the business.
Control is another concern. Traditional map-first tools often keep event-level data locked inside proprietary platforms, making it hard to connect with customer records or analytics models. That’s a deal-breaker in a world where location data feeds fraud detection, marketing automation, and AI forecasting.
Then there’s compliance. Location is now classified as personal data under GDPR and similar regulations. Regulators in both Europe and the U.S. have taken enforcement action over misuse or oversharing of precise coordinates. Companies can no longer afford to treat location handling as a mere developer implementation detail.
The Landscape Of The Location Market
Industry analysts expect the global location-based services market to exceed $150 billion by 2030, with the fastest growth in AI-powered fraud detection, logistics, and personalization. That expansion is also driving a rethinking of the underlying technical architecture.
Instead of a patchwork of APIs and SDKs, the emerging model looks more like shared location infrastructure—systems that connect to marketing, risk, and operations teams at the same time.
Radar is one of several companies pushing in this direction. It handles more than 300 billion API calls per year across 300 million devices, offering what it describes as the “world’s first Location OS.” The Radar platform spans three integrated capabilities:
Engage, which triggers real-time messages when users enter defined zones or visit key locations.
Protect, which verifies user presence for compliance and identifies fraud patterns tied to location anomalies.
Optimize, which tracks arrivals and trips for delivery and mobility services.
Patrick describes the strategy as intentionally contrarian: “Startup wisdom says pick one thing and do it better than anyone. We’ve learned the opposite. Expanding our surface area while serving multiple teams with the same data has fueled our growth.”
The Global Economics Of Geolocation
Thinking about location data as an economic driver, rather than just “data,” helps explain why new systems are drawing attention from finance and strategy leaders—not only IT. When location data works well, it affects three business levers:
Revenue. Retailers and restaurants use arrival detection to time notifications or cross-sell offers, producing measurable lifts in conversion and satisfaction.
Cost. Logistics firms reduce fuel consumption and idle time by combining live geolocation with predictive routing.
Risk. Banks and betting platforms rely on location checks to block transactions from restricted regions or detect impossible travel patterns.
Radar and similar providers are building pricing models that reflect this value chain. Instead of charging per lookup, some now charge by monthly active user or by event stream, giving customers more predictable costs while tying spend more directly to business scale.
The impact can be significant. In gaming and wagering, Radar claims its model can cut compliance costs by up to 50% compared with older, check-based systems, while also reducing fraud exposure.
Mapping Modernization
Executives looking to modernize their location stack can start with a few practical questions:
Who owns the location data? Make sure event data is exportable and governed by your company—not trapped inside a vendor’s silo.
How does it connect to value? Every location signal should support a measurable business process—marketing, risk, or logistics—not just draw dots on a map.
What’s the cost curve? Model worst-case usage scenarios before signing long-term contracts. Predictability matters as much as headline price.
Is privacy built in? Require consent management, retention controls, and sensitive-location handling by default—not as optional settings.
Are we using the signal everywhere it fits? Marketing is often first, but fraud and operations teams frequently see faster ROI.
Setting A New Course For The Location Data Market
Large map incumbents still dominate visualization and routing, but newer platforms like Radar, HERE, and others are integrating directly into core business systems rather than just developer tools. Partnerships with companies such as LexisNexis Risk Solutions show how location and identity verification are converging into single workflows.
Pricing transparency is also becoming a key differentiator. Many organizations remember the surprise bills that followed API pricing changes years ago. Vendors offering clear cost models and open data policies are finding receptive audiences among procurement and compliance teams.
The next phase of the location market isn’t about prettier—or even more detailed—maps. It’s about decision-ready context. More important than knowing where someone or something is, is understanding what that means for operations, risk posture, or the next marketing move.
Patrick sees location as a bridge between the physical and digital sides of the enterprise. “We’re helping companies connect what’s happening in the real world to the systems that run their business,” he says. “That connection point is where a lot of untapped value lives.”
In practical terms, location data is moving from the app layer to the enterprise layer. Companies that manage it as shared infrastructure—an asset that is governed, measurable, and tied to KPIs—will gain a clearer picture of how real-world behavior drives performance and, ultimately, the bottom line.
Location data is now a currency—less about map tiles, directions, and pins, and more about behavioral, movement, and transaction intelligence.
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