What Pokemon Go really means

Nintendo (Tokyo 7974) jumped another 17% today, hitting a high of 26,460 Yen per share, and has now doubled in two weeks. At this value, the company is worth US$34b. That is just a whisker less than Sony, and means that Nintendo’s value has increased by 3x the US$5.9b value at which Candy Crush changed hands last year. It is now the biggest mobile game ever in the US at 21m daily active users - larger than Candy. So the game is fun, and lots of people are playing it. But the big picture is that the game marks the first real hit in the augmented reality space, and has significant implications for a number of other groups. Augmented reality creates a new way of interacting with the world. For example, developers are talking about allowing advertisers to sponsor their own Pokemon which would then attract players to real world stores (are you listening, Messina?). To see how it may play into your daily work regime watch this.