Creating a Category, Part 2 : The Thrill of the Hunt

I’ve always loved treasure hunts. I make them for my kids, I (sadly) watch The Curse of Oak Island, and most recently I finally indulged my childhood fantasy and bought a metal detector. It makes sense that I recently became fascinated with the idea of Geocaching. 

For those that don’t know, Geocaching is a recreational activity that uses GPS coordinates to direct participants via an app to containers (“caches”) that are hidden by other users. Once a cache is found, the searcher can log their find and can see/take/swap a variety of little trinkets inside depending on the type of cache. Caches cannot be buried but do vary considerably in terms of search difficulty. On the app that I’m using, you can track your stats, chat with other geocachers and upgrade to unlock different types of caches.

Figure 1: screenshots from the Geocaching app

Apparently, there are over 3 million geocachers globally - not bad. I enjoy it for the “treasure hunt” of course, but also as a way to get my kids outside. My sense is that this concept ties into something inherently human, a desire to explore and discover. Remember Pokémon Go? it peaked out at over 200 million users in 2016 and is still Niantic’s most profitable game! (https://www.businessofapps.com/data/pokemon-go-statistics/)

There’s a market that’s worth thinking about here. What if the logbook and trinkets could be replaced with something a bit more engaging – and even commercial? Maybe the caches have QR codes that activate artist-inspired, AR content. Maybe the AR content is tied into some sort of coupon or incentive and promoted by a major brand or local entrepreneur. 

The creative and commercialization possibilities are much broader today given advancements in:

  1. AR content creation (e.g. Stunnar), 

  2. AR-enabling hardware and – importantly – 

  3. Location-based, permissioning

The latter is a concept pioneered by a UK-based company called Darabase, which we featured in a post back in the summer of 2022. It’s the first-of-its-kind platform (darabase.io) for property and land owners to register, protect, manage and monetize what’s now known as Property Digital Rights (PDRs). In essence it solves a major part of the permissioning problems that made Pokémon Go hard to monetize and disruptive to certain property owners that didn’t want people running around in their buildings looking for Mimikyu or Charizard.

We are on the cusp of activating our physical world with all kinds of engaging digital content that is going to unlock monetization opportunities for property owners and will create new social platforms, pastimes, and art. At GroundBreak, we’d be happy to explore new models that might tap into these trends – we’re always on the hunt.

Scott Kaplanis