Apparatus and Method for Identifying and Employing Visitation Rates

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising program instructions stored thereon that are executable by a processor to perform the following steps:

• obtaining a user location dataset indicative of a location visited by a user, the user location dataset being based at least in part on a location signal received from a mobile computing device associated with the user,
• determining that the location visited corresponds to a geographic location of a place of interest;
• determining a visit count corresponding to the location dataset, wherein determining the visit count corresponding to the location dataset comprises:
• identifying a user profile of the user, the user profile including a characteristic of the user;
• obtaining a ratio of members of a group having the characteristic that also employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest, wherein:
• the ratio of members of the group having the characteristic is used to reduce an undercounting of members of the group having the characteristic who visit the place of interest and do not employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest, and
• the ratio is a function of both an amount of members of the group having the characteristic and a portion of the amount of members of the group having the characteristic who employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest;
• reducing the undercounting by increasing the visit count corresponding to the location dataset based on the ratio;
• adjusting a visit count for the place of interest to include the visit count corresponding to the location dataset;
• and
• storing the adjusted visit count for the place of interest in a visitation rate datastore.

A system, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• memory storing instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to perform the following steps:
• obtaining a user location dataset indicative of a location visited by a user, the user location dataset being based at least in part on a location signal received from a mobile computing device associated with the user,
• determining that the location visited corresponds to a geographic location of a place of interest;
• determining a visit count corresponding to the location dataset, wherein determining the visit count corresponding to the location dataset comprises:
• identifying a user profile of the user, the user profile including a characteristic of the user,
• obtaining a ratio of members of a group having the characteristic that also employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest, wherein:
• the ratio of members of the group having the characteristic is used to reduce an undercounting of members of the group having the characteristic who visit the place of interest and do not employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest, and
• the ratio is a function of both an amount of members of the group having the characteristic and a portion of the amount of members of the group having the characteristic who employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest;
• reducing the undercounting by increasing the visit count corresponding to the location dataset based on the ratio;
• adjusting a visit count for the place of interest to include the visit count corresponding to the location dataset;
• and
• storing the adjusted visit count for the place of interest in a visitation rate datastore.