History

Positium has been at the forefront of location data analytics since its inception. Here's a journey through our milestones and achievements.
In 2002, when Estonia hosted the Eurovision Song Contest that brought thousands of spectators to our capital, an idea sparked. Instead of surveys, there had to be a more efficient and accurate way to analyse human mobility patterns and tourist flows, thought human geographer Prof. Rein Ahas, urban planner Heikki Kalle and architect Ülar Mark.

In the course of exploring this idea it so happened that, in 2003, they founded Positium as a spin-off from the University of Tartu. Our roots in social sciences, human geography, economy, tourism, and GIS provided a strong foundation for our methodological research.
First articles about the social positioning method (SPM) and mobile positioning data (MPD) were published by the researchers at the University of Tartu together with Positium – a game changer in future human geography and social science research.
Architects from UrbanMark, researchers from the University of Tartu and the MPD experts of Positium built an exhibition called "JointSpace: Location aware urban space and poetry" for the Venice Architecture biennale. They received such great feedback that Positium decided to develop these ideas into real products.
Positium's first office was established at 9 Õpetaja Street in Tartu, Estonia.
Anchor point model – a model for detecting human activity spaces from MPD was created and published as a fundamental article "Using MPD to model locations meaningful to users of mobile phones". Positium Barometer – the first MPD-based interactive tourism statistics system was developed. It was made available to all municipalities in Estonia. The Barometer established a basis for Positium's own processing software – Positium Data Mediator (PDM).

In 2008, we completed our first major project in Estonia, using MPD to produce official statistics. The project was a success, leading to an 80% rise in visitor arrivals measured through MPD.
Estonia became the first country in the world to use MPD for official tourism statistics as the result of fruitful cooperation between the central bank of Estonia and Positium. The project is still ongoing today.
Positium expanded its services globally, working with clients in multiple countries. We began providing tourism statistics for Indonesia and have been doing so continuously from 2016 until 2021, measuring an additional 1 million annual visitor arrivals.
Positium became a founding member of the Estonian Smart City Cluster initiative, designed to create an innovative environment in cities to boost the competitive ability of companies by bringing together businesses, citizens, public authorities, R&D institutes and structures that support innovation.
Together with Eurostat, Positium conducted the Feasibility Study on the Use of Mobile Positioning Data for Tourism Statistics. It was the first of its kind, involving research from different countries about accessing, using and evaluating MPD. The paper paved the way for many future discussions about MPD.
Our methodology was recognised by the United Nations, and we became a member of the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science’s Task Team on Mobile Phone Data. This recognition cemented our place as leaders in the field.
The United Nations Global Working Group on Big Data for Official Statistics was launched with Positium's participation and we started working towards bringing MPD to statistical offices around the whole world.
The Indonesian cross-border tourism analytics project was started, making Indonesia the second producer of official statistics based on mobile positioning data.
We launched the Positium Data Mediator, a modular data processing system that converts raw data from Mobile Network Operators into valuable insights. This innovation has been implemented in various countries across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
We moved our office to the city centre of Tartu. To this day, we cannot get enough of our views overlooking the river.
By 2020, we had completed over 300 projects, analysed data from 15+ countries, and collaborated with major organisations like the UN, OECD, and GSMA. That year, we also completed one of our most important GIS projects to date – the spatial database integrations of the eCensus in the Sultanate of Oman.
Positium continues to innovate and expand, driven by our mission to improve the quality of life through data-driven decisions. We remain committed to providing high-quality methods and tools for extracting trustworthy knowledge from mobile positioning data. With two decades of experience under its belt, Positium has firmly established itself as a leader in the industry, continuing to inspire and innovate.


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For detailed insights into our projects and methodologies, visit our Resources Page. There, you can download case studies, save images, and find links to relevant studies and articles.