Valuable data is a critical component of any marketing communications campaign. This is truer still as technology continues to evolve and the amount of data available grows. As you might expect, the most savvy marketers are taking advantage of this to target their customers.

One such savvy marketer is the ride-hailing app, Uber. This disruptive company has reinvented the way that consumers view transportation, becoming a trusted resource for many. Since its launch in 2010, there have been over 2 billion trips in 545 cities across the world. Each of the 40 million monthly users must enable their locations services, as well as supply their credit card and contact information. Each trip results in user data being collected by Uber. Lots of little data becomes big data.

Uber is now beginning to leverage this big data with the release of its own data platform, Uber Movement. Currently, Movement shares the anonymous GPS information attached to each user’s trip to help city planners to measure traffic patterns. The data is also available to the public. What makes this news exiting for marketers? It is expected that the data from Movement will soon allow marketers to promote events, products or storefronts along an Uber rider’s route.