Google has partnered with Americanas and delivery startup Favelas Brasil Xpress to provide digital addresses to the more than 100,000 inhabitants of Paraisópolis, south of São Paulo. The idea is to allow people and businesses that do not have well-defined addresses to receive a location code, in order to increase logistical efficiency and expand access to basic services.
The initiative was announced this Thursday (5th) at an event at the G10 Favelas pavilion. The goal, according to the company, is to generate 4,000 addresses by June and another 30,000 by the end of this year.
The mapping will be done with the Plus Code, a universal geolocation code created by Google that summarizes coordinates in a few characters and with an accuracy of three square meters.
The tool is free and open source — anyone can discover the Plus Code from an address on the platform’s website. The code that represents the headquarters of the G10 das Favelas, for example, is 97HF+MX.
“We did this with the intention that all residents of the community can say ‘I’m here’ and share their addresses using Plus Codes,” said Newton Neto, director of partnerships at Google for Latin America.
While it doesn’t charge for the service, the company’s expansion into new regions means more local data generation and personalized ad revenue. In 2019, Google announced a similar initiative for residents of rural areas.
For now, only Americanas —which has been operating in Paraisópolis since April 2021 promoting inclusion and training for residents—will integrate the technology into its ecommerce platform. In this way, when making a purchase, the user will be able to inform the address in the form of a Plus Code.
Who will act as an intermediary between the platforms and the residents of Paraisópolis are the couriers of Favelas Brasil Xpress, a delivery service that began operating last year and has made 715,000 deliveries since then. Today, the startup has 300 delivery partners and 50 permanent employees, and intends to expand the operation to favelas throughout Brazil.
“We created our own logistics system to include favelas in Brazilian e-commerce. Obtaining addresses based on Plus Codes will make it even easier, eliminating barriers that should not exist”, says Giva Pereira, the company’s CEO.
After the event, some houses located in alleys of difficult access in Paraisópolis received signs with Plus Codes on their facades.
Despite the service initially only providing for deliveries of purchases from Americanas, residents were excited even at the prospect of receiving food delivery at home without having to go down a few streets to find the delivery man.
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