Where

Area of interest

Area of interest sets where a flow looks: one or more cities, whole countries, places such as a mall or a street with a radius around each, or areas you draw on a map. With Places (POIs) it also hands the places you picked on as items, one each with its name, position and address, to blocks that work on each place: put Mobility Footfall or Traffic Flow straight after it to measure those places themselves. The data blocks after it (Map business scan, Traffic incidents, Ships, Weather forecast, Satellite images and Job postings) search inside it, and what they find outside it is dropped.

In the editor: Sets where the flow looks: countries, cities or specific places, or areas you draw on a map. Data blocks after it search inside this area. Places you pick are also handed on, one item each, to the blocks after it that work on each place.

Settings

Choose by

Pick one

How you describe the area. The setting under it changes with the choice.

Cities One or more cities, found by name.
Countries Whole countries, for a wide net.
Places (POIs) Named places with a radius around each: a mall, a street, a stadium.
Draw on a map Your own shapes: territories, districts, a port, a site.

Cities

A setting

Search for a city and pick it from the list; add as many as you need. Each city covers the area the place search gives for it, or about 12 km around its centre (4 km for a town).

Countries

A setting

Search for a country and pick it. Each one covers the country’s box from the place search.

Places

A setting

Search for a mall, a street, a landmark or any named place, and pick it. Each one becomes a circle with the radius below, and blocks that work on each place get the places themselves.

Blocks that work on each place (Mobility Footfall, Traffic Flow, or Each incoming place in Demographics, Weather and others) get these places themselves, one item each. Search blocks such as Nearby places look inside the circles.

Radius around each place (m)

A number

How far around each place the area reaches, in metres: 500 is a short walk, 5,000 a district.

Needed before the flow can run.

Areas

A setting

Opens a map to draw polygons and rectangles, move or edit them, search for a place to centre on, or paste a GeoJSON boundary (Polygon, MultiPolygon, Feature or FeatureCollection).

Draw polygons or rectangles, or drop one or more points with a distance around each (Points).

How to use it

Telecom

New shops in each sales territory

A telecom operator splits a city into three sales territories and wants every new phone and electronics shop in each one, for the field team that covers it.

Before: Territory managers swapped spreadsheets and argued over which shop was whose.

With the flow: Each Monday every territory gets its own new shops, found inside its own boundary.

Hospitality and events

Rain alert for my city

The Area of interest holds the city; Weather forecast reads it and gives one row a day, and Filter keeps only the rainy days.

Retail real estate

What opens around my malls

A mall operator wants to know every cafe and restaurant that opens within 1 km of its three malls, to plan its own food court.

Places (POIs) turns each mall into a circle of the radius you set, so the scan stays close to them.

Logistics

Road closures in my city

One city in the Area of interest is all Traffic incidents needs: it searches the city in parts, centre first, and keeps only what is inside it.

Delivery apps

Restaurants in three new cities

A food delivery app is opening in Bangalore, Chennai and Jubail and wants a call list of well-rated restaurants that are not partners yet.

Add or remove a city in one place; the scan and everything after it follow.

B2B sales

Companies hiring in our cities

Job postings set to Automatic searches each city of the Area of interest (up to 5), so the same area drives both the jobs and any scan you add later.

Government and cities

A weekly picture of each district under construction

A city planning office draws the five districts where new roads are being built and wants a clear satellite picture of each every week.

Before: Site visits were the only way to see progress.

With the flow: Every Monday the team gets the latest clear picture of each district, with the date it was taken.

Ports and shipping

Ships entering my zone

The port area is drawn in the Area of interest; Ships listens inside it and Zone alert reports the ships that entered the port entrance.

Good to know

It brings no items. Put a data block after it (Map business scan, Traffic incidents, Ships, Weather forecast, Satellite images or Job postings) to get places, incidents, ships, forecasts or pictures.
Data blocks search each part of the area from its centre, at a zoom that fits its size. Several smaller areas (cities, districts you draw, places with a radius) find more than one very large area such as a whole country.
Map business scan searches up to 8 parts of the area in a run. Weather forecast and Satellite images use the centre of each city or shape, up to 20. Job postings uses the names of the first 5 cities.
What a data block finds outside the area is dropped, so a list never spills over your boundary.
A city is the area the place search gives for it, or about 12 km around its centre when there is none. To be exact, draw the boundary yourself.
Several blocks after one Area of interest all use it: change the cities or redraw the shape once, and every block follows.
It is free.

Works well with

Map business scan: Finds businesses on online maps live: name, category, rating, address, phone, website and whether it is open.
Traffic incidents: Road closures, roadworks and other incidents on online maps right now, with where they are.
Weather forecast: The weather forecast (Open-Meteo, from national weather services) for up to 16 days: temperature, rain, wind and UV.
Satellite images: Recent satellite pictures (Sentinel-2, about 10 m per pixel, a new pass every few days) of each incoming place, a point or the Area of interest: when it was taken, how cloudy, and the picture itself.
Ships (AIS): Ships at sea or in port right now, from AIS (the signal ships send with their position, speed and heading; live from AISStream): every vessel heard in the Area of interest before this block, or around a point.
Job postings: Live job postings: who is hiring, for what, and where.
Zone alert: Reports items (ships, for example) that entered, crossed, are inside or left a zone.
Find nearest: For each place, finds the nearest of your own points from a CSV you upload, for example the nearest ambulance to each accident or the nearest branch to each new lead, and adds its name and the distance.

Templates that use it

New outlets to CRM: New restaurants and cafes as leads in your CRM every morning, with a brief for the reps.
Shops that just closed: units to rent: Shops that closed this week, each a unit that may soon be free for your next store.
Nearest ambulance to each accident: Every accident in your city matched to the nearest of your ambulances, every hour.
New places every morning, only new: New places of your type in your city every morning, only the new ones, ranked by xMap AI.
Watch new competitors: Competitors that opened in your city since yesterday, every morning.
How customers rate competitors: How customers rate your competitors, every week, the weakest first.
Where to open next: Areas of your city scored for a new branch, every week, on a map.
Ships entering my zone: An email when a ship enters or passes through your zone, every hour.
New homes with no supermarket yet: New apartment buildings with no supermarket nearby, scored as places for your next store.
Decision makers at new cafes: New cafes scored by xMap AI, with the owner and managers from Apollo.
Who lives around new places: The new cafes in your city with the people living around each.
Rain alert for my city: An email only on days when rain is expected in your city.
Road closures in my city: Road closures and roadworks in your city, every morning.
New businesses in my territory, researched, into HubSpot: Every new business in your territory, scored, with the decision maker, straight into HubSpot.
Morning call list with decision makers and call notes: The 20 best clinics to call today, with the owner or director, in a sheet.
New businesses routed by size: key accounts to Slack, the rest to a sheet: New businesses scored and routed by size: the established ones to key accounts, the rest to inside sales.
Companies hiring buyers, and who to call: Companies hiring buyers this week, sized and scored, with their purchasing managers in HubSpot.
New openings to the field rep on WhatsApp: New restaurants and cafes graded by Jev and sent to your rep on WhatsApp every morning.
Prospects not yet in my CRM: Supermarkets and groceries not in HubSpot yet, scored and added every week.
Score every neighbourhood for a new branch: Every block of your city scored for a new supermarket, the 20 best on a map.
Where my rival is and I am not: Every rival branch with none of yours within 2 km, with who lives around it.
Shop space for rent near stations in Tokyo: New shop and restaurant space for rent near Tokyo’s stations, every Monday, best value first.
Busy stations with no convenience store: The train and metro stations with the fewest convenience stores around them, scored for a new one.
Fair franchise territories for a city: Your city shared into six fair franchise territories by where people live, with a plan for each.

And 690 more in the template gallery.

Stories with it

First through every new bakery's door (Food distribution)
Every new bar on a rep’s list by Monday (Craft beer)
The morning a rival slips, she knows (Phone repair)
Better beans for the cafes that need them (Coffee roasting)
A pop-up spot that sells out the drop (Sneakers and streetwear)
New stores where people reach for reading glasses (Eyewear retail)
Open when the cruise ship docks, not after (Souvenir shop)
One clean prospect list, every shop once (Organic cosmetics)
New money agents where people already gather (Mobile money)
At every new restaurant before it settles in (Payments)
The city’s favourite kitchens, on the food floor (Shopping malls)
Two shopping streets, read every Monday (Retail property)

Help articles

Build your first flow in ten minutes: From a blank page to a flow that emails you a ranked list every morning.
What xMap remembers about your company: Your city, industry and what you sell, filled in for you and always yours to change.
Area of interest: say where to look: Cities, countries, places with a distance, drawn shapes and points.
Draw your areas and points: Shapes, circles and points with a distance around each.
One flow for many cities: Search several cities, or take the city from the request.

Guides and terms

How to find new businesses in a city every morning: A daily list of newly listed businesses of a type, ranked, in your inbox.
How to build a B2B lead list from the map: Every business of a type in your territory, with contacts, scored, in a sheet or CRM.
How to size a market by radius: Count every business of a type around a site, with chains, ratings and openings.
Geocoding: Turning an address or place name into coordinates.
GeoJSON: A common file format for points, lines and areas.
Geofencing: A virtual boundary that triggers something when an item enters or leaves it.

Industries that use it

B2B sales · Retail & franchise · Restaurants & cafes · Real estate · FMCG & distribution · Marketing & agencies · Recruiting & staffing · Logistics & delivery · Government & cities · Investors & consultants · Healthcare & pharma · Hotels & tourism · Banking & lending · Energy & EV · Construction & facilities · Telecom · Automotive & mobility · Education & training · Agriculture & food supply · Fitness, beauty & wellness · Law & professional services · Media & publishing · Events & venues · Non-profits & humanitarian · Security & emergency services · Environment & climate · Ports & shipping · E-commerce & D2C · Manufacturing & industrial · Software & tech · Sports clubs & leagues · Pet care & veterinary · Home services & trades · Food delivery & quick commerce · Airports & aviation · Mining, oil & gas · Public transport · Water & waste utilities · Insurance · Fishing & aquaculture

Try it

Build a flow with Area of interest on the home page, no account needed, or book a call. Try it live