Niantic (company)
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Formerly called
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Niantic Labs (2010–2015) |
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| Privately held company | |
| Industry | Mobile applications, mobile games, alternate reality games |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Founder | John Hanke |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
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Key people
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| Products | Field Trip, Ingress, Pokémon Go |
| Website | www |
Niantic, Inc. is an American software development company based in San Francisco, which is best known for developing the augmented reality mobile games Ingress and Pokémon Go. The company was formed as Niantic Labs in 2010 by Keyhole, Inc. founder John Hanke as an internal startup within Google. The company later became an independent entity in October 2015.
The company was formed in 2010 by Keyhole, Inc. founder John Hanke as Niantic Labs, an internal startup within Google. The company took its name from the whaling vessel Niantic, which came to San Francisco during the California Gold Rush in the 1800s. The ship itself was named after the Niantic people, a tribe native to the New England area, where the ship (like many whaling vessels) originated. In fact, the officers of the crew who famously brought the ship to San Francisco were all of the Cleaveland whaling family of Nantucket. The Niantic people referred to themselves as the Nehantucket.
Niantic's first product, published in 2012, was Field Trip, a location-based mobile app which acted as "your guide to the cool, hidden, and unique things in the world around you."
Niantic's first augmented reality game Ingress was initially made available on Android by invitation only in November 2012 then released publicly in October 2013. An iOS version was released in July 2014.
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Wikipedia