What do the map wars mean for Ola Electric and MapmyIndia?

Well, if that is indeed the case, tech major has much to worry about in terms of its other offerings, apart from its search engine. For instance, Google Maps.

Google has become synonymous with maps, thanks to the ubiquity of Google Maps mobile app.

Google Maps had a global monopoly on mapping services for decades. It has done its best to prevent competition in the mapping industry.

In India, however, the dominance of this segment is under threat with intense competition from homegrown players.

A few weeks ago, Google introduced India-specific pricing for developers using the Google Maps platform. The pricing was low enough to kill competition with up to 70% lower costs on most Application Programming Interfaces or APIs.

Later, Google announced a slew of new features on Google Maps to woo Indian users. EV charging station information, flyover callouts, and AI-driven routing among others were expected to keep drivers hooked to Google Maps.

Why the price cut and whom does it really hurt?

Today, digital maps have become an extremely valuable data with huge commercial potential.

From agriculture to mining to doorstep delivery, various industries now use maps as a key business asset. That's why India is witnessing map wars.

Geospatial mapping was not always a thriving business in India.

Earlier, the government imposed significant restrictions on the mapping industry. Companies had to seek licences and follow a cumbersome system of pre-approvals and permissions.

It all changed about two years ago when the government notified the National Geospatial Policy.

The policy liberalised regulations governing the acquisition and production of geospatial data and services. Thus, it enabled Indian private firms to work without prior approvals.

The policy also considers the security risks in the geospatial mapping business. It bars international companies from capturing data in India through satellite-based operations. However, Indian entities can continue to do so.

Also, foreign companies can use very high accuracy geospatial data only by subscribing to APIs from Indian companies.

The geospatial policy thus unlocked tremendous opportunities for Indian startups in e-commerce, delivery, logistics, Internet of Things (IoT), banking and financial services, and spacetech.

To understand the cost implications in the mapping business, it is important to know the mapping ecosystem in India.

CE Info Systems, the parent company of MapMyIndia, is the first such listed entity in India in the mapping business. The company has been collecting geospatial data in India for about 30 years.

MapMyIndia initially built the digital footprint of the available offline maps. Later, it physically surveyed the areas, visiting different parts of the country.

In the past 30 years, MapMyIndia has successfully built a repository of more than 20 million (m) data points, including navigation systems, telematics, and 3D data visualisations.

The company claims to have mapped more than 10.8 million distinct locations. It had carried out coverage of more than 2.2 million km of roads, 7,268 cities at the street level with home address level data for 94 cities and 579,000 villages.

MapmyIndia has an almost 80% market share in automobile navigation systems. It benefits from an increasing number of use cases for mapping services arising from rapid smartphone and mobile internet penetration in India.

The reason MapMyIndia thrived despite Google's presence is because Google Maps was more focused on generating advertising revenues.

On the other hand, MapMyIndia focused on licensing products to B2B customers. Google's focus on B2C enabled MapMyIndia to penetrate faster into the relatively more niche B2B businesses.

Second, in the automotive and mobility space, MapMyIndia's maps can be directly integrated and stored on to the car's infotainment system.

Google's steep price cut announcements came in immediately after ridesharing startup Ola Electric Mobility rolled out Ola Maps.

After its listing earlier this month, Ola Electric Mobility became only the second listed Indian entity with exposure to the mapping business.

As per Ola Maps, the digital mapping solution was created using proprietary and open source data. This included real-time data of the Ola fleet and open-source government data repositories, OpenStreetMaps.

Ola, on its part, had already offered one-year free access to all developers to shift to Ola Maps on artificial intelligence (AI)-driven Krutrim platform. Besides, it offered ₹100 crore in free credits.

Ola also claimed that exiting Google Maps and shifting to its in-house navigation system for cab operations had offered a huge boost to its profits. As per the company, the move had reportedly saved the company nearly ₹1 billion in costs a year.

Until not too long-ago, Ola had been using MapMyIndia's licenced mapping services (till 2021).

MapMyIndia alleged that Ola used this collaboration to surreptitiously build its own maps product, and then offer it to other users.

It also accused its erstwhile client of breaching the license agreement to create Ola Maps.

Just as Ola dismissed Google's sovereignty in the mapping business, it also dismissed the 'copyright' claims made by CE Info Systems.

Also Read: Mint Explainer: Ola Maps, MapMyIndia, Google and the nationalism conundrum

Intense competition among private players in the geospatial mapping business is likely to continue given the vast potential for commercial gains.

As per the government, India's geospatial economy is expected to provide employment to more than 1 million people mainly through private geospatial companies.

India's geospatial market is estimated to be worth approximately ₹27,700 crore in 2025, rising from ₹22,900 crore in 2019. The commercial opportunity in the sector is expected to triple by 2030.

Foreign entities like Google risk losing market share as CE Info Systems, Ola Mobility, Genesys International, and several startups stand to gain with the India-centric policy edge.

Despite the map wars, CE Info Systems is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the B2B demand for maps across industries.

Nevertheless, any pricing war could deal a heavy blow to the profitability of the mapping companies.

Watch this space...

Disclaimer: This article is for information purposes only. It is not a stock recommendation and should not be treated as such.

This article is syndicated from Equitymaster.com