Google is in the middle of a reorganization, with Niantic Labs, an augmented reality unit of Google, soon becoming an independent company.
Niantic Labs first launched Field Trip, and Android app which helps users find interesting places nearby. The release happened back in 2012 and soon after, the lab has released an augmented reality game known as Ingress, which asks users to explore real world locations.
Ingress has seen a great success, as it has been downloaded on Android and iOS more than 12 million times and had pulled 250.000 people to events held across the globe. After the first successful step, Niantic Labs has launched Endgame: Ancient Truth, another augmented reality game that ran for several months.
All projects that developed under the Niantic umbrella failed to find a suitable place anywhere inside Google’s plans of business expansion, therefore the structure took its chances to start as an autonomous company.
After several projects that have met glorious reviews, Google will let Niantic Labs walk on an independent pathway and establish new rules and terms of partnership.
The new split is highly unusual for the way Google manages its resources and it means that Niantic Labs will no longer be part of Alphabet, another new company that will take shape later this year, aiming to include Google and other parts of the organization.
Alphabet will be a new holding company, expected to start on the business playground later this year. Alphabet will include Google and other parts of the company. The Niantic move is only a fragment of the new business strategy.
A new perspective, concentrated on independence and autonomy, will allow Niantic to focus on growth, in order to become more close to investors and partners in the entire entertainment space. More details haven’t been revealed yet but hopefully the split will bring new opportunities for the entity.
Niantic will continue to collaborate with Google and work with new partners. Google’s reorganization will offer some of its services a fresh start, allowing emerging businesses and advanced projects, such as self-driving cars and internet-connected balloons become separate companies and grow independently. Under the idea of change, many of Google’s core online services will still remain in the company that will be renamed Google Inc.
Niantic will embark on a solitary mission, as we don’t know yet what the split is all about. Google has not explained why it broke with its internal startup but the megacorporation’s recent reorganization “could have left little room for esoteric gaming experiences in Alphabet’s future”, according to The Verge.
Image Source: androidcommunity.com
