The company Big Data Platform, established in March this year by VTB Bank and Rostelecom, is implementing the first universal geoplatform in Russia based on the analysis of depersonalized data using automatic machine learning (Auto ML).

It enables the forecasting of demands, customer flows and other factors in specific locations to inform decision making on the location of retail outlets, offices, advertising objects, as well as evaluating the investment appeal of buildings and plots of land.

Geoplatform products, which evaluate and predict the flow of customers and place targeted advertising, are already being tested by one of the leading Russian retail chains - Magnit, and the largest operator of outdoor, transit and indoor advertising in Russia, Russ Outdoor.

'The geoplatform is already available in 50 major cities in Russia. We can use it to assess locations with an area of 500 by 500 meters. The geoplatform will compare 170 layers of depersonalized data from the banking sector, telecoms and digital services and offer an optimal platform, for example, for a new barber shop, an advertising billboard for a highly specialized audience, or the construction of a residential complex.' said Vadim Kulik, Head of the Board of Directors of Big Data Platform, Deputy President and Chairman of the VTB Management Board.

The data, collected in a single geo-grid, uses automatic machine learning methods (Auto ML), which accelerates the process of bringing products to market, as well as adapting technologies to the specific tasks of a company in a week.

'VTB and Rostelecom's geoplatform technologies can be useful for companies across different sectors ranging from retail, food and household chemicals manufacturers, fitness centres and banks, to insurance companies, developers and logistics companies,' said Alexander Aivazov, a member of the Board of Directors of Big Data Platform and Vice President for Business Development at Rostelecom.

'The competition between retailers in Russia, has reached such levels that choosing the location of a particular store is one of the most important tasks in the development of the network. We plan to test this technology in fifteen major cities in Russia. According to our estimates, the use of the Big Data geo-platform, in combination with technology for analysing the competitive environment and selecting locations can help to massively increase the return on investment in new retail outlets and reduce costs by more accurately selecting locations with an optimal ratio of the rent to customer traffic.' commented Florian Jansen, Deputy General Director and Executive Director of Magnit.

'The outdoor advertising market is increasingly relying on qualitative data for both planning and analysing the results of advertising campaigns. The geo-analysis technology in the Big Data Platform offers advertisers the locations where their target audience is most active, thereby increasing the effectiveness of an advert placement. Outdoor advertising has always been an important tool for activating consumers, and we are already able to solve problems like increasing the frequency of site visits, increasing the number of search queries for the campaign, visiting offline points of sale and many other issues that were previously available only in the digital environment,' stated Boris Peshnyak, Commercial Director of Russ Outdoor Companies Group.

The geo-analytics market in Russia is growing by 15-20% per year according to estimates and previous project experience from PwC and Strategy& and the use of geo-analytics products can provide revenue growth of up to 20% due to the optimal placement of retail outlets and sales offices.

(C) 2020 Electronic News Publishing, source ENP Newswire