Introducing Our Location Data Streams Catalog

Location Intelligence is transforming how companies are doing business across multiple industries worldwide. Business decisions are no longer made based solely on an organization's own data  such as client transactions  or even external single datasets  such as census  but on a myriad of new big data sources.

When it comes to spatial data and analysis  there are three key drivers for this change:

• New data is more accessible than ever: it’s much easier to obtain crowdsourced or open data  as well as information about credit card transactions  mobile devices  and traffic patterns
• New analysis: through more sophisticated optimization  spatial prediction  visual inference  or spatial data science
• New (and more) end-users: Organizations of all sizes are setting up and growing Data Science and Business Intelligence teams

This shift will be a game-changer for those companies that learn how to capitalize on these new data sources and analysis  which is why we’re working hard to diversify the range of Location Data Streams available in our new catalog.

Why Thinking Spatially Matters

Spatial dimensions may not be immediately obvious in some business models  but most companies do have underlying spatial structures even if they don’t know it. Building spatial context using external data  uncovering those spatial relationships  and factoring them into data analysis is key to getting meaningful insights.

No matter how sophisticated your modeling techniques are  or how much you invest in your data science teams and tools  if your models are not spatially aware you are not working at full potential. Only the best data leads to the best analysis  and spatial context is very often essential to see the full picture.

Powerful Context Through Geospatial Data

Besides company-generated data  such as CRM information  organizations across the globe are uncovering new insights by augmenting their data - understanding the context through external datasets. Some of these data types include:

• Financial: Merchant and ATM transaction data from leading banks and credit card companies
• Human mobility: Mobile device and GPS data provide insight into human movement patterns
• Demographics: The most recent census data including: age  income  household types  and more
• Housing: Property statistics  prices  and history to drive decisions in investment portfolios
• Road traffic: Data from routing apps and GPS to analyze traffic patterns and commuter behavior
• Environmental: Climate and weather data  including climatology metrics  forecasts and exposure to weather hazards
• Points of interest: Location data for business establishments  restaurants  schools  attractions  and more

A One-stop Shop for Spatial Data

Selecting  collecting  and consuming spatial data can be a lengthy  painful process for Data Scientists: from using untapped data sources and discovering new ones  to onboarding individual data providers  to performing spatial analysis with the best tools. That’s why at CARTO we’ve brought it all together in one place: our Location Data Streams library is a single and easy-to-use access point for all things geospatial data.

Using our extensive collection of curated datasets allows you to enrich your own data and broaden your analysis. Our Location Data Streams allow you to access different datasets on common standardized spatial aggregations  including both open data and premium data from market leaders. With access to the best data  you can focus on what matters the most - quickly extracting actionable insights that inform business decisions.

See It for Yourself

With our newly launched data catalog  you can browse through the different datasets we curate. Simply select what type of data you’re interested in and then choose a country to see which datasets we have available. You will get an idea of what types of data points we have on that category and at what level (for example  administrative regions).

If you don’t find a particular country coverage for a dataset you’re interested in  don’t worry - you can get in touch with our team of data experts and they will look into how we can help.

Want to power your analysis with new Location Data Streams?

Access our catalog here

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 960401.