While Facebook and Microsoft believe future interactions, and transactions, will take place in the metaverse — an entirely digital world where people exist as avatars in virtual reality (VR) — Niantic founder John Hanke has been pursuing a “real-world metaverse”, using augmented reality (AR) to encourage people to explore their actual surroundings.

Spun out of Google in 2015, where Hanke had led the Google Earth mapping project, Niantic demonstrated the potential for AR technology by launching the worldwide hit game, Pokémon Go, in collaboration with The Pokémon Company and Nintendo.

Now, Niantic is creating an AR map of the world by collecting data and scans from millions of users. Here, Hanke tells FT technology reporter Cristina Criddle why he wants to enhance the real world, rather than create a synthetic one.