Designing Database for my Android app

Question

I have very limited experience using databases. I am designing a game in which users enter location-based data which is then visually displayed to them. Similar to other apps which allow a user to share location-based data (ie restroom rating apps, etc), I would like to extend my app to allow users to view each other's data. I would like to know the best way to approach this problem. The following is how I assume that I should go about this:

I would start off by registering with a free hosting site (like 000webhost) until they become too slow for my needs. I would create a mysql database for the data. In the program, I would update the information with some sort of post request and retrieve it with a get request which would feed it into my data structures for viewing.

Does this seem like a reasonable plan of action or are there other ways to go about this process that would be more optimal? Like I said, I have very limited experience with databases so I am open to any tips/suggestions.

Answer 1

If the app is real simple, you might want to start with something like https://parse.com/ . They're multi-platform, and have native sdks.

I think starting a from-scratch DB server with no prior knowledge will be a very large undertaking.

I'm sure there are other options, but this seems like a good candidate for Parse.