The army is responsible for Gould's mobile internet business.

When he was working on his mobile phone map, he was responsible for the company's mobile internet business, which had worked in Nokia and Motorola.

Baidu first noticed that the opportunity for a map began when Google withdrew from China.

With Google's market share rising, the flow is also gradually rising. At that time, Google, Baidu did not do their own maps, Baidu will map business outsourcing to a professional map of the service, Google outsourced to the gold, the daily only set up one or two people to maintain.

When Google withdrew from China, Baidu found that only as a PC-side search Accessibility map, the market share of traffic quickly reached 80%. Also in 2010, Baidu, Tencent began a large number of professional map companies digging people to do a PC version of the map.

He used to be a traditional map company, relying mainly on car manufacturers to preinstall map data and navigation software, and to provide the Government and enterprises with the underlying data services to obtain a profit source. After the listing, the chief CEO of the first saw the mobile Internet opportunity, decided to enter the mobile Internet, as a portal, rather than the service provider.

At that time in Shenzhen Huaqiang North pre-installed mobile phone software, will be preloaded with Google Maps, when Google moved the server to Hong Kong, the mobile phone manufacturers fear of Google service instability, and gold is right at this time with the mobile phone map, so please come to the Nokia, Motorola has worked in the army is responsible for the mobile internet business.

At that time, the German mobile map is a collection of various data but without navigation function of the "Mini map." The vice president of the German Army communication origin, in Nokia, Motorola Dry for many years, and mobile phone manufacturers are very familiar with, so he began to seize the opportunity to exit Google, find the big mobile phone factory to negotiate the gold map pre-installed to each mobile phone.

By the end of 2010, the number of "Mini map" users had quickly risen from 2 million to 10 million. 2011, the map began to do a graphic interface, and the map to render more beautiful, in order to emphasize the brand, the mini map officially renamed as a Gold map, and the core function of the focus on the online navigation. This year, the first to wake up the number of users to grow to 40 million. In the early days, the role of the first pre-installed is not, once reached 90% of the total number of users.

Tencent has been interested in maps much earlier.

As early as 2007 when Google launched Street View, Tencent has done research on the street map, but many conditions are not mature, street View for a long time or as the company's important technical reserves.

For a long time, the map is far from Tencent's core business. 2010, when Tencent launched the map business, the map was understood as part of the search, so it was divided into the Tencent Soso department as a vertical search.

In the 2012 Tencent big restructuring, the map was split from the Soso, was placed in the Mobile Internet Division (MIG), when the map is considered to be a mobile internet is a basic application, but still do not know its importance, but a "must have something."

Double male

Tencent launched its Street View business 3 years ago and unveiled 3 city street maps in December 2011, namely Shenzhen, Lhasa and Sanya. As of February 26, Tencent Street View has been online 123 cities.

When he took advantage of the mobile Internet opportunity, he awakened a sleepy internet giant.

At the end of 2011, Baidu began to realize the importance of mobile maps, 2012 began to exert force, and in October to divide the map into lbs division, the map as a strategic product of Baidu.

Baidu to do the determination of the map is very firm, a short span of time, Baidu lbs division from 200 to 1000 people, the internal implementation of fast, with a variety of resources to help push, coupled with strong technology, Baidu map soon become the industry's second-most close to Gould. According to a Baidu internal staff introduction, Baidu map at that time a project divided into two teams to do, bad that group will be directly eliminated, which is the most "wolf" in the internal department.

Internet companies are best at capturing markets in a "disruptive innovation" fashion. Previously, the high reliance on the handset manufacturers and the free pre-installed access to a large number of markets, Baidu in order to win the handset manufacturers, proposed to install a map of a dollar. At this point, Gould also began to change the free way, packaged applications in the form of mobile phone pre-installed, hoping to lower the cost of pre-installed, packaged products include a gold map, navigation and part of Alibaba's products.

In addition to having free map products, both sides also have paid off-line navigation software, when the company is planning to announce the navigation products free, Baidu took the lead in announcing its navigation products free, both sides are using a public relations war to attract users.

Behind the PR war, Gold is "the abolition of martial arts", the Internet-style innovation attempt, but the original mobile internet business model was completely broken. Previously, the gold mobile internet revenue is the user paid to download the "high navigation" and the "German navigation" to sell to Samsung and other high-end mobile phone manufacturers, pre-installed a mobile phone manufacturers to the gold to pay 10 20 yuan cost.

The result is a massive rise in the numbers and a sharp drop in revenues. In 2013, the three quarterly earnings showed the number of mobile subscribers grew to 171 million, while active subscribers rose 23% to 77 million, while net losses reached 4.4 million U.S. dollars, while net profits were 12.8 million in 2012. Ma Yi, chief financial officer, said the mobile internet business would be lower in the fourth quarter of 2013, with a drop of more than 50% per cent, under the influence of pre-installed.

Today, Baidu Map has become a rival with the gold map, and the key to striking or behind the way of thinking and technical differences.

Map is a highly professional, classified work, which requires map companies have the ability to collect data and algorithmic capabilities. The road background and other elements can rely on vehicle acquisition and aerial photography, and each store data collection, it requires the outside staff pedestrian street racket, and store information, address, positioning camera input system. At present, the Internet Map Service manufacturers have the ability of the only one of the German. In addition to enterprise staff data collection, but also through with partners to establish a database, a more Internet way to update data, do depth poi (points of interest, point of acquires), the map and the public comments, Ctrip, Sina Weibo and other established a wide range of deep cooperation, The restaurant, hotel and other details can be updated on the map from the background.

The collision between traditional thinking and internet thinking is also produced. With other Internet companies, the two sides can directly docking the database, the Chengri hotel, each hotel address, telephone, room type directly updated to map data. But most of the time, the data is not accurate, partners often do not update the business has ceased to cooperate with the data, if you want to be accurate, you need to manually update the map collectors.

In Gould's interior, internet-born people and traditional map-making figures began to quarrel over whether it was speed or accuracy. Traditional map-making people think that the most important map is to be accurate, the user must be navigated to the door, and the internet people think that they have talked about a lot of business partners, if not timely update, will affect the follow-up cooperation, fierce competition in the era, speed is everything.

This problem has also appeared inside Baidu, Baidu in 2012 just entered the map when the rapid docking partner data, once a variety of data is not allowed, such as search the same restaurant multiple results, many poi points are redundant, matching fast but not allowed. Soon, Baidu realized that the experience of doing this to consumers has been poor, and began to improve.

Ultimately, the solution to these problems is to rely on technology to achieve large-batch matching. Third-party cooperation data can now be implemented in real time with the base database data, and at the beginning of the technology is not full, the link between the manual and more. Similar examples of this balance in accuracy and speed are widespread in all sectors, but technology and new methods have been created with problems.

According to the Analysys International 2013 Q3 Survey Report, the gold, Baidu, Sogou map ranked among the top three in the market, accounted for 31.3%, 21.6% and 7.5% of the market share; in the second quarter of 2012, Gould, Google, Baidu ranked top three, respectively 25.7%, 17.5% and 17.3 %。 Gould and Baidu quickly gained the status of market monopolies.

Variable

Wang Jianyu, the head of Tencent's mobile map business, found that the user's use of the map was too low.

After the mountain Li Yong found himself in a cold sweat, sitting next to the driver is also. This is May 2013, Li Yong and the driver opened Tencent Street View car all the way up to Jixian Mountain Peak, this is known as "Jing Dong First Mountain" of the mountain is extremely steep, the mountain process Li Yong did not feel this, until the driving down to feel "special fear."

After graduating in 2012, Li Yong joined the Tencent Street View, running around the country for more than 300 days a year. Tencent launched its Street View business 3 years ago and unveiled 3 city street maps in December 2011, namely Shenzhen, Lhasa and Sanya. As of February 26, Tencent Street View has been online 123 cities.

Truss, who is known as "the first man of Street View in China", is the head of Tencent Street View, who studied geology and came to the navigation map business before Tencent's streetscape. In his view, Tencent's opportunities exist, the current map form is too elementary, the user experience there is a lot of room for improvement, and streetscape is likely to bring a different picture of the map.

The two-dimensional form of today's map determines the limited use of the user. Wang Jianyu is Tencent mobile phone map business owner, he found that the user's use of the map is too low, "you go to work will not use the map, because the vicinity are too familiar, go home without maps, the same reason." Only when you go to a strange place will you use it to look at the route. ”

At the same time, this also means that when the user opened the map already know where to go, the main function of the map or navigation, and can not affect the user in the early decision. For restaurant services, users will first use the public comments to check the restaurant, and then jump to the map to see the route, rather than open the map before deciding where to eat. A map that is located downstream of a user's decision makes it easy to block upstream. In fact, as the upstream of the public reviews have been in the application of access to the map, if its experience with a separate map to see the same, at least in the restaurant area map There is no need for a separate existence.

Today's map, on the one hand, in the local life services in the area of user decision-making downstream, on the one hand is too low frequency, which also for the current "map entry theory" has been a lingering question mark.

"Now the map industry's market barriers are not high, and according to today's play, if the map form itself does not change significantly, we want to grab a bigger market share is difficult." Our opportunity lies in change, and this change will come from the map itself. "Wang Jianyu said. So compared to Tencent, "no Baidu and Ali so anxious", he drank kungfu tea side said.

Wang Jianyu is not worried because he hopes Tencent map business can use technology to establish new rules of the game, rather than in the existing two-dimensional map rules to follow. "The existing two-dimensional map structure, even if we buy all the third after the map manufacturers, still difficult to change the overall situation." ”

Tencent's map wants to be the variable that drives the industry to upgrade, and the weapons in their hands are Street View maps.

Tencent's investment in Street View is at an expense.

The Street View equipment is extremely expensive, in order to control the cost, Tencent's streetscape car all autonomously assembles. The red Volkswagen Polo car is topped with a 20-pound device, which is its eye, made up of 6 Nikon cameras with fisheye wide-angle lenses, and is distributed 360 degrees. This is not the most valuable part of the car, the rear seat of the value of 200,000 of the Novatel GPS positioning equipment is. Such a street View car worth about million yuan, currently a total of 50, of which half of the north is located in the big city, the other half of the users to open cities.

When it comes to Street View, Tencent is aiming for an opportunity to map the future.

Truss that the current development of the entire map industry is a relatively early stage, "Most people use the scene is still looking for a place, find a way, navigation, just like people, when all your use of the scene is around to eat, it is still in the food and clothing line." When you use maps in the future, these use scenarios can become very minor. ”

At the Google I/O conference in 2013, Larry Page, dressed in a red T-shirt, expressed the keynote of "facing the future rather than talking about the competition between companies", with Google Maps directly using "future-oriented" as its keynote.

In his understanding, the future map will be composed of 4 layers: traditional two-dimensional maps, street maps, aerial maps, local data. Each layer is actually digitizing the real world in different dimensions, eventually creating an independent digital world parallel to the real world where everything can be connected, people and people, people and trading, trading and cell phones, cell phones and cars

Whether it's Google Maps or any map of the country, there's a long way to go, and no one knows the exact path. Tencent believes that streetscape will be a very important part of it, "Street View is a good way to express the world," Wang Jianyu that it can solve the map of the "last kilometer", so that people's understanding of the geographical part of a new level. Now, for example, the map doesn't solve the problem of where the garage or the entrance to the building is, and Street View is a good solution.

Three Kingdoms Kill

Truss, who is known as "the first man of Street View in China", is the head of Tencent's streetscape, and in his opinion, the current map is too elementary, and streetscape is likely to bring something different to the map.

Now, BAT's layout on the map is not only focused on the map, but for the link line under the "entrance".

Open Baidu and the gold map, now has been carrying such as group buying, taxi, hotel reservations and other types of beer and skittles platform. German Vice President Xi Army told "business value": "Gold from 2011 when the revision of the time to do position life portal, has always been this direction has never changed." ”

Location is the natural attribute of mobile internet and the most commonly used service. When the map became a connecting carrier for Internet users, it was like a tiny variable that started churning the entire internet industry.

Mapping in China requires special licences, which only 11 companies in China have obtained. There's a piece of revenue called corporate and government service revenue, refers to the basis of the map of the data sold to Third-party companies and the government revenue, and Tencent, Google, Sina and other third-party companies have to buy the basic data, and Apple in IOS6 launched, China's map services and operations are entrusted to the German to do, Baidu uses a four-dimensional map of the new data.

Before Ali had a stake in Gould, Tencent will spend millions of per year to buy the underlying data of the gold, Tencent internal staff revealed that the company's basic data services are still in cooperation with Tencent, but the three-dimensional data has not been sold to Tencent, a map of the gold response said: "It depends on Tencent to buy, rather than we sell not sell. In other words, Ali's shares are causing a change in relations between the two sides, and objectively forced Tencent to start exerting force on the map.

December 2013, Soso map renamed Tencent Map, it began to appear as a company-level platform identity, Soso map is Tencent and Sogou trading has not been outside the dog to marry a piece of business, which also shows that Tencent for the map of the strategic resources of the value.

January 2014, Tencent wholly-owned acquisition of a grade A surveying and mapping qualified Fineline company. The acquisition will not only make Tencent's street-view collection easier, but will also eliminate the risk of adding UGC data to map data in the future.

In addition to the underlying data, the bigger impact is that the map is becoming a platform for a growing number of "Third-party apps". Last August, Baidu Map announced the number of users to break through 200 million, Baidu map from a simple travel tool to become a life service platform, already has more than 5 million life service data, and more than 60 data partners for in-depth cooperation. and Baidu lbs open platform Day active app up to 100,000, for 250,000 sites and applications to provide map services, and for more than 70,000 apps to provide positioning services, positioning request daily up to 3.5 billion times. Gold's open platform has more than 300,000 developers, and more than 10,000 apps a day invoke the service of the gold lbs open platform.

This is also Baidu's map as a core mobile internet strategy to achieve results. Both sides of the map are realizing the original idea, you can eat on the map, set the seat of the cinema, call cleaning, and the hotel to choose the type of room. Today, Baidu and the main focus of gold is still the integration of cooperation, consumers use the map introduced by the Third-party application of limited traffic, Xi Army revealed: "Now is still in the improvement of the ecological system input phase, through the flow of partners to import the cost is too early." ”

However, in Baidu, high homogeneity of the competition, the two biggest difference is that Baidu in addition to the establishment of an open platform, but also hope to do their own Baidu group purchase, glutinous Rice Group founder Shenboyang's departure also and Baidu hope to borrow from the purchase of glutinous rice to do their own buy close relationship. In the group buying market has been the United States and the general public comments divided the situation, Baidu is not afraid to give up the two partners, but also need to borrow glutinous rice and map resources to push their own buy, this behavior is also causing the United States network and other third-party partners vigilance.

Previously, he was a third-party open platform that approached neutrality. But when Ali took a stake, especially after a wholly-owned takeover, the ingenious Internet Mechanics system was changing. But the development of Internet enterprises into the integration period, the major emerging start-ups have been in the team, the map and the partnership has become more and more ingenious.

If Ali shares in the gold has been a standing act, why Ali has taken a stake in high Germany, but also need to continue the wholly-owned acquisition?

One argument is that Ali previously invested in the form of a controlling map service provider Easy Map, after the easy map Tong began to integrate into the various departments of Ali, but the integration effect is not very good. Last October, Taobao local life launched a "map search", users can search through the map concessions and merchants, but less influence. After a wholly-owned acquisition, it is more advantageous for Ali to control and allocate internal resources.

However, when the Internet and traditional commerce in the deep integration, access to the line of the entrance is Ali more want to obtain resources. After a wholly-owned acquisition, both sides based on the database and the integration of offline personnel to imagine a greater space. For example, maps in mapping, the need for foreign workers to go to each store to measure, this can be with Ali's Amoy points such as the merger of the people to complete, save labor costs.

Last August, Baidu Map announced the number of users to break 200 million, Baidu map from a simple travel tool has become a life service platform.

According to the reporter understand, Alibaba will launch on March 8, "Mobile Taobao Life Festival" may be the two sides of the deep cooperation in miniature. Taobao will then and offline 40 Mall to cooperate with the use of Alipay pay discount may be low to 38 percent, users can rob coupons on the gold map, view the real business and navigation into the shopping malls.

Alibaba said: "Geographical data and navigation is only an application of the Internet, and integration into the Ali system, the company will be in the Alibaba business ecology based on the development of the business and operating mode of innovation." ”

Compared to Baidu and Ali Grand O2O layout, Tencent Street View is more optimistic about the potential of the vertical area.

In Tencent mobile phone map business owner Wang Jianyu, compared to the two-dimensional map, the advantage of Street View is that it is more intuitive, the reality of a higher degree of virtualization, which may broaden the user's use of the map of the scene.

Unlike maps, user scenarios for Street View can be divided into two categories, using Street View to recognize destinations and applications in vertical areas. For example, renting, buying a house, users can first use Street View to check the local community situation to help make decisions, currently including SouFun, net and other vertical sites have been connected to Tencent Street. There are tourist markets, such as view attractions, hotel areas, such as hotel reservations, relative to the current commonly used text and picture description, streetscape is more intuitive and comprehensive expression.

It is the opportunity to see the vertical field, Street View launched the consumer-oriented navigation applications Tencent road treasure. Its biggest advantage in real-time road conditions, and most of the current map of the navigation function is different, Lobo in the use of such as road cameras, taxis and other third-party data, added from the micro-letter, hand Q, mobile phone map and other data platform positioning data, it can be in the entire real-time road traffic operations to join people, moving speed and other data. At present, the entire Tencent map platform for this positioning data can be reached 3 billion times a day. The more data, the wider the source, the more accurate the final data mining results.

"It would have been a big deal to do a good job of driving this scene," Truss explained Lobo's original intention. In his view, in the future when we talk about "map", as now talk about "Internet", the map will be a ubiquitous concept, it will extend a variety of vertical areas of application, to solve the problems in various specific scenarios, such as driving, public transport, walking, ordering, tourism and so on.

If from the overall pattern of Internet competition, the local map of the Third-party platform is truly mature, the formation of closed-loop needs of user account system, payment, such as a set of system support. In the future, users can use mobile phone number and verification code as the account system, leaving only the payment link, but Baidu does not have its own payment system.