10 Ways Businesses, Individuals, and Niantic can make (more) money out of the PokemonGo movement and P-Commerce

It is still early days, very early days, I have not played PokemonGo yet (I’m in Canada, I’m lazy, and don’t feel like going outside today) but I see the potential and it is huge…

Update July 13 — Pokemon Go Driving insane foot traffic

Here are 10 ways different parties can benefit and make money out of the PokemonGo movement:

(Feel free to steal any/all of the below, free of charge, I won’t sue you, just drop me a note if you do so, let me know if you are successful. If you are successful you can buy me a beer, or pay me 1 dollar, or 1 million, whatever you feel like)

1- Pokemon Trading:

As soon as I heard about PokemonGo I thought … Pokemon Trading can be huge … The company already said they will work on trading and no one knows what this will look like, but I can see that going in different directions:

If trading is free of charge (Niantic does not charge for trading, or there are issues with the legality of allowing such trading to happen via Mobile App stores/mobile stores) then a virtual marketplace can exist that facilitate transacting between buyers and sellers, price ,of course, will be determined based on how rare a Pokemon is and how strong it is. Not sure if trading will be location based or allowed internationally, but this is a minor detail that any marketplace can handle.

If such an online marketplace cannot legally exist or cannot accept regular payments via CreditCards and Paypal then Bitcoin and other Virtual currencies can be an option. If such a marketplace cannot exist on clearnet then a Darknet marketplace can exist….

2- Business Sponsored Pokemon Gyms and Hunting grounds:

Not sure what Niantic’s plans are but there is HUGE value in driving real world physical traffic to locations. Coffee shops, restaurants, shopping malls, and retail locations can sponsor a local Pokemon Gym and pay for it. People will get hungry and tired hunting for/training Pokemons and when they do so they are likely to buy…

Update July 13th: It Looks Like Pokémon Go Is Pursuing a Partnership With McDonald’s

3- Pokemon Hunting and Training experts:

If I were an Expert Pokemon Hunter/Trainer I would love to start a website to teach people how to hunt and train Pokemons properly. I will give away some knowledge and education for free, then offer a private/paid course.

4- Professional Competitions / Tournaments:

Could Pokemon hunting become a national or an international sport / event? People can make money organizing such an event or tournament with sponsorships, awards, prizes and the likes… I would talk to Niantic first to make sure they are ok with this as I would Not want to be hit with a cease and desist… Or you could organize these privately … We will call them fight clubs … and the first rule of fight clubs is …

5- Pokemon related News Site / Fan site / Podcast / Video Blog/ YouTube Channel and live streaming:

If I were a fan of Pokemons I would start a news site, fan site, and or podcast which includes news, blog posts, tips, tricks, and even try to start a community. Once I get enough traffic I can monetize the site with ads, sponsorships, and more..

Live streaming Pokemon hunting events and fights can be huge. Niantic can choose to do their own live streaming (which is obviously best), or I can strap a Go Pro to my phone / on my body and go for it … Not sure how fun this is to watch (with a go pro) but it is worth exploring.

Update Jul 11th This man’s Pokémon Go chat app is so successful that it’s driving him bankrupt

Update Jul 11th Pokemon Go is sparking Craigslist missed connections across the country

Update Jul 13th Someone started a Community forum

Update Jul 13th Massive Pokemon Go meetup planned for Toronto

6- P-Commerce (E-Commerce) / Pokemon Merchandise

Pokemon is obviously an established brand with millions of dollars in marketing and advertising and there are already Pokemon Merchandise but I suspect we are about to see a surge in demand. Folks who already have established Pokemon Merchandise /commerce businesses will see additional demand. There also may be an opportunity for new e-commernce (I’m calling them P commerce businesses to launch)

7- Pokemon Platform:

I bet the Niantic guys are running around like crazy now with all the demand, but maybe when they have the time to take a deep breath and think about whether it makes sense to open APIs and allow community and developers to build on top of their platform, there may be some interesting use cases and ideas …

8- Pokemon Sightings App:

It will be interesting to geotag areas where Pokemons were found and hunted and trying to reverse engineer those to extract patterns and useful information. Not sure if this can be feasible and monetizable, at least it is fun to try.

9-PInsurance (Accident Insurance for Pokemon hunters and Pokemons):

Ok this one is silly but I suspect some people will get involved in accidents while trying to hunt pokemons so they will need insurance. Expensive Pokemons also should be insured against loss and capturing…

10- Buy Nintendo stocks and back Niantic:

I would totally buy Nintendo stocks now and if Niantic’s stock is ever available and/or if I am a VC / Angel and Niantic happens to be looking for fundind I would totally invest right now!!

If anyone else has other ideas feel free to comment/post.