We’re not sure how many music-industry folk are hunting down virtual Pokemon in the streets around them, but the runaway success of Nintendo’s AR/location-based mobile game Pokemon Go this week is worth following.
Among yesterday’s news stories on the game, which remains officially available only in the US, Australia and New Zealand, are these: the game has added $7.5bn to Nintendo’s market value in a matter of days, with a 24.5% rise in the company’s share price on Monday alone. In the US, the app is estimated to have been downloaded 7.5m times across Android and iOS, generating $1.6m of revenues a day on iOS alone. The CEO of developer Niantic, Nintendo’s development partner for the game, has talked about its ambition to get people exercising, visiting local landmarks and teaming up with strangers. And, er, the game has been described by one researcher as a “huge security risk” because on iOS, players signing in using their Google accounts are giving the game full access to their Google profiles: it can read their emails and send emails as them; access all their Google Drive documents; see their search and Maps histories; and access their private photos in Google Photos. Niantic says this was a mistake and will be corrected. Finally, the music angle: Spotify says streams of the Pokemon theme tune are up 362% this week…
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Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…