Woah! As someone who hasn't paid much attention since the initial launch, I had no idea. Here's the business model:

> Besides in-game purchases, partnerships with retail chains like Starbucks, McDonald's, Sprint, pay Niantic Labs for "Foot Traffic" on-demand of the retail shops.

The trick was combining a popular franchise with aggressive whale seeking monetisation and having that all backed up by three figure agencies.

The app more than did its jo.

You lost me at three figure agencies. Are you saying that the FTC should be somehow involved here? What other agencies are you referring to?

I'm pretty sure they're referencing John Hanke, who used to work for the U.S. govt, founded Keyhole through funding from In-Q-Tel (CIA's VC), which ended up spawning Niantic.

It seems they're actively working with the NGA, NSA, DIA, and CIA. It could be just for 3D geo-spatial tech, or it could be for sharing data. It's secret and it doesn't look like conclusive evidence of data sharing has been published. My personal belief is a little bit of both is going on.

Is it Japanese only collaboration?