We’ve all seen it. It’s that little pop-up that asks if you want to turn on your location when you download an app on your phone. Perhaps when you click yes, you’ll get suggestions of places that you are near in the app. Makes sense. Kiawah Island Town Administrator Stephanie Tillerson presented in the Kiawah Island Town Council meeting on Nov. 1 that the Ways and Means Committee voted and approved a recommendation to Town Council for phone app software, called Placer, that would track the traveling habits of visitors, workers and residents.
Tillerson explained it as an economic development tool. “It’s essentially a tool that tracks cell phone service.” She went on to explain that Placer has a partnership with over 500 different apps.
“So, if you download an app on your phone and allow it to turn on your location, there is a way to accurately pinpoint where you are and your location.” Tillerson said there are terms and conditions that people have to adhere to. “The fine print gives third party companies the ability to be able to use the data and information.” Tillerson said Placer tracks about 10% of the 32 million subscribers, so it isn’t everyone. The Town of Kiawah Island would like to utilize Placer’s services to track what some people might be doing, like what restaurants they are going to and where people are coming from. “Maybe we have a lot of people coming from the northeast and we could utilize that information,” Tillerson said. “We might see that home sales are being bought by people from that area.” Tillerson also said that they would be able to use Placer’s information from an emergency standpoint and for traffic mitigation. “We will be able to essentially pinpoint and be able to see how many people are traveling not only through the gate, but also where they are going.” The example Tillerson posed was that there might be a bus that comes to Kiawah Island with 50 people on it.
She said that might be five to 10 people who are a part of Placer on that bus.
“This could help from a short-term rental standpoint too. And even with the State A-Tax Committee. We are always trying to figure out how to balance restrictive versus nonrestrictive.”
Tillerson said they would also share the information they obtain from Placer with their partners. “We are able to create reports. So if it is something that the association would like to know or any of our smaller restaurants even. Or even The Sanctuary. We are able to do a laundry list of reports that we think will be helpful.”
Tillerson said that the staff will be trying to learn the process of gathering all the information that Placer provides. “There’s a lot there.” The Town of Kiawah Island is looking forward to reviewing specialized reports. Town Council Member John Moffitt said that he finds the information they can gather on their employees to be helpful too. “We can find out what roads are critical and what time of day is busiest. This will help us better manage employee traffic. There is no question that we can use this information.”
Tillerson said that she wants to create a report that is specific to construction, contractor and landscaper traffic. “It will be nice to see how many people in traffic are actually residents because a good bit of it could be coming from outside sources.” The Ways and Means Committee recommendation to use Placer to track user’s travel and location habits on Kiawah Island was approved by Council.
The website, Placer.ai, described the app as: “With location analytics including visit trends, trade areas, demographics as our foundation, we’re just getting started. After launching our world class mobile analytics platform in November 2018 and closing Series C at $100 million in January 2022, we’re on our way toward offering a full market intelligence platform, providing new insights such as crime, planned development, and traffic counts.”