Pokémon GO to implement Niantic Local Business Recovery Initiative

Niantic has announced the Niantic Local Business Recovery Initiative, wherein 1,000 local businesses will be given complimentary promotion in Pokémon GO for one year.

At first, this initiative will only be available in Canada, Great Britain, Japan, Mexico, and the US. Pokémon GO players must nominate a business, with a limit of one submission per player, and 1,000 nominated businesses will receive in-game promotion.

As per the official Pokémon GO blog, the physical locations of nominated storefronts will appear as Sponsored PokéStops or Gyms on the Pokémon GO in-game map. Chosen businesses will also receive access to other in-game marketing tools, like promotion campaigns.

Small businesses can then “build awareness of their location and product offerings” along with displaying geo-targeted messaging and offers to nearby players. The chosen nominees will have access to these features for an entire year.

Nominations will be open until Friday, July 31st, 2020, at 11:59pm PDT. You can nominate a business and read the FAQs regarding the initiative by following the link here.

Niantic also mentions that Pokémon GO will continue to support some of its stay-at-home initiative changes for the foreseeable future, but the game will also eventually see the return of some normal features like the walking requirement to unlock sets of battles in the GO Battle League. You can see the recap for the quality-of-life updates below.

• The distance at which you can spin Photo Discs at Gyms and PokéStops will remain increased.
• Gift storage and the number of Gifts you can open per day will remain increased.
• Remote Raid Passes will remain available.
• The walking requirement to unlock sets of battles in the GO Battle League will return eventually.