The report finds that smart city technology is set to grow $27.5 billion annually by 2023
Singapore, New York, Barcelona, Oslo, London and San Francisco are the smartest cities in the world, according to the Proximity.Directory.
The directory, formerly known as Proxbook, features aggregated information from more than 370 companies which provide proximity technology solutions in over 50 countries. It is published by Unacast, the world’s largest proximity data platform which built the Real World Graph to understand how people and places are connected and which aims to empower the next generation of data-driven industries.
Thomas Walle, co-founder and CEO of Unacast said that the Q4 2016 Proximity.Directory Report concluded the deployment of global smart technology projects in urban markets is expected to grow significantly on annualised basis. Unacast predicts that smart city technology is set to grow $27.5 billion annually by 2023.
“We are still in the early stages of smart city developments. In 2017, big project announcements will come to life,” he said. “As more of the world’s cities become congested with continued urbanisation, governments need to prepare for smart city initiatives. These initiatives can benefit by using proximity technologies to overcome mobility challenges the growing population presents to ensure public safety, optimise traffic flow, create better tourism experiences, and data monetisation opportunities.”
According to the directory, between 2014 and 2016, the global smart city technology market increased with $3.3 billion, going from $8.8 billion to $12.1 billion. Unacast predicts 66 per cent of the world population will live in urban areas by 2050. Today, 82.3 per cent of the population in the US live in urban areas.
Unacast points to initiatives such as Uber’s ‘Uber Movement’ as giving city planners and researchers the possibility to look into ways to improve urban mobility by accessing their data connected to traffic flow.
“Uber has a lot of insight into how traffic works within a city, and it can be anonymised so that it isn’t tied to specific individuals in most cases,” stated Kjartan Slette, COO and co-founder of Unacast. “Uber is going to begin sharing this data, first to specific organisations who apply for early access, and then eventually to the general public.”
The latest report found that:
Additional Proximity industry findings:
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