In the years since we launched our Neighborhood Boundaries™ product, our market has grown, and our processes have evolved in response. Increasing refinement of sourcing methods, customer feedback, and shifts in the world economy impact which metro areas we include in our product.
This is especially true outside of the United States and Canada. Internationally, we make measured decisions every day about which neighborhoods to map.
Intelligent Neighborhood Targeting
When we began mapping neighborhood boundaries on a global scale in 2010, we selected the metros to target based on their population. As this process has evolved and market expectations have changed, we now take additional indicators into account, including economic viability and tourism activity.
Maponics uses an “intelligent targeting” process to identify the most important cities for our customers. To compile the database, we use a scoring system based on indicators such as economic viability (GDP and GDP per capita) and tourism, along with additional scoring indicators based on customer inputs.
![international neighborhood mapping]( "Jakarta, indonesia")
Berlin vs. Jakarta – Which to Include?
Intelligent targeting means that we examine a variety of factors about a city to determine when to include its neighborhoods in our database.
For example, if we used only population to compare Berlin to Jakarta, we would conclude that Jakarta takes priority over Berlin, as Jakarta is nearly three times the size of Berlin in population.
However, when you look at factors such as GDP and tourism, you see that Berlin exceeds Jakarta in economic relevance – suggesting that priority should be given to mapping Berlin’s neighborhoods over Jakarta’s.
| Indicator | Berlin, Germany | Jakarta, Indonesia |
| 2010 Population | ~3,440,000 people | ~9,600,000 people |
| 2010 GDP | ~$126,900,000,000 | ~$70,740,000 |
| 2010 GDP per capita | ~$33,000 | ~$10,800 |
| Tourism: overnight visitors | ~11,320,000 | ~9,000,000 |
| Tourism: airport enplanements | ~19,591,830 | ~59,701,540 |
| Digital connectivity (country ranking) | 18th Worldwide | 65th Worldwide |
Maponics’ Comprehensive Approach to International Neighborhood Sourcing
Using intelligent targeting, we have developed a consistent and comprehensive approach to building international neighborhoods.
Admittedly, it is difficult to pinpoint a method that accounts for all variables in a global market. However, our efforts have made it clear that indicators of economic growth, tourism, and others in addition to population are particularly relevant.
We will continue to refine our intelligent targeting to ensure that we’re mapping the global metros that are most important to our customers.