Mastercard (NYSE: MA) has introduced WhereToStay.com – an online platform which, basing on data on average housing costs and average wages from Central Statistical Office (Główny Urząd Statystyczny), aggregated with spending trends of everyday purchases, from Mastercard, “determine the approximate cost of living in various cities, towns and regions of the country.”
Thanks to this, Ukrainian refugees looking for a place to live, “can find the optimal location in terms of their family situation and budget.”
WhereToStay.pl is available “without registration or login.” To get the most tailored results the user needs “to provide some basic information in a few steps, such as the size of the household, occupation, the region where they would like to settle, and information on the preferred means of transportation.”
Analyses of shopping trends from Mastercard aggregated with publicly available statistical information used in the WhereToStay.com “are updated in accordance with the refresh cycle of information provided by the Central Statistical Office, thanks to which users looking for a new apartment receive results based on the current situation in the country.”
Bartosz Ciolkowski, General Director for Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Mastercard Europe, said:
“Millions of refugees who arrived in our country as a result of the war in Ukraine, needed support and care at the first moment. Now, although 56% of them plan to return to their country as soon as possible, they have to look for a home in our country and no one really knows for how long. 69% of those looking for a new place to live independently prefer cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants.”
Ciolkowski added:
“However, it turns out that it is in smaller towns and cities that it is easier to find a job and manage the ongoing costs of raising a family. The tool we have launched, WhereToStay.com, makes it possible to verify the current situation and possibilities of the person looking for a place to live and to choose such an area where he or she will feel independent and self-reliant.”
The Wheretostay.com will be “available in three languages: Polish, Ukrainian and English. This way, it can be used by both Ukrainian citizens and the Poles who support them.”
The platform was “created for the benefit of refugees, but in the future, it may also serve as a knowledge base for other people changing their place of residence, such as students.”
In 2019, Mastercard has “proposed six data responsibilities that help deliver sustainable data programs designed to best navigate the challenges and opportunities of the digital economy—and how to make that digital economy work for everyone, everywhere.”
These are safety and security, transparency and control, accountability, integrity, innovation and social impact.
Marek Kolano, Head of Data Driven Solutions at the Polish branch of Mastercard Europe, said:
“According to the last rule, companies should use data to identify new needs and opportunities in order to drive positive social change. This was the idea behind the development of the WhareToStay.com. We treat all customer data with the utmost care and it is crucial for us that it is secure. Nevertheless, aggregated, and anonymized it is a reliable, real, and comprehensive source of knowledge that can really affect someone’s life; change it, help them make a difficult decision. We hope that this platform will support those looking for a new place to live in making the best decision for them.”
Both consumers and Mastercard’s business partners can “rest assured that the company analyses the available data with the highest standards of security and privacy.”
Data is the cornerstone of Mastercard’s business model and “is integral to all of the company’s products and services.”
Through the use of innovative data aggregation and anonymization mechanisms, “including using tools such as Truata, transaction-specific information remains invisible and is never analyzed or shared.”
The methodology also “excludes the possibility of identifying specific entities, as well as analyzing data for sets that do not meet the condition of adequate size.”
The new tool from Mastercard “uses information on consumer spending trends, which is aggregated and anonymized according to Mastercard’s secure data processing principles.”