The mobile map industry users have grown into the ceiling, and the high-precision map wars dominated by the car-end are in the ascendant.
Author Qiu Xiaofen
Editing Yang Lin
There is a battlefield where there is BAT. Since the beginning of this year, Gaode has become extremely high-profile, and the most concerned about it is its aggregate taxi mode, which indicates that it has entered into a competitive relationship with Didi.
Efforts to find a balance are also defending the left and right, and the built-in map is changed from Tencent Map Gaode map to its own developed drop chart, and the aggregation is also re-enabled. Although the map action on Tencent’s side is silent, its layout in the travel is real, using the US group to provoke the aggregate taxi competition, and the flow of life. Baidu’s previous failure in the layout of the travel, after the failure of Baidu map transformation, in order to catch up with the gap between Gao De, is also quietly using Baidu map to try to expand the travel business.
In addition to the C-side competition, the BAT’s layout on the high-precision map is also kicked off in the B-side car company. There are still many new players’ faces in this field.
A quiet map battle has actually begun.
Prequel: Traffic Portal
Different from the fierce killing situation of payment and take-out, the competition in the field of maps has been relatively silent.
The reason may be that the map itself is not a rigorous business, and the ability to liquidate is its biggest barrier. Map collection is subject to qualification restrictions and will become even higher in the future. A long time ago, the navigation service of the map was paid. In the era of mobile Internet, mobile phone maps have become popular with ordinary users due to the trend of free downloading. Since then, maps have begun to realize through B-side data services, car product customization, open-screen advertising and LBS location services.
However, from the phenomenon of the entrants in the map track, it can be seen that the map as a tool has a very limited space for realization. Even if it is backed by the capital of BAT, the map is only used as a basis within the big company. The role of the facility is to help BAT achieve a stepping stone for smart cities, car networking, and shared travel.
BAT’s looting of map resources originated in 2013. Baidu first started to acquire Changdi Wanfang. Since then, Alibaba has fully privatized Gaode map, which subsequently withdrew from Nasdaq. Tencent entered the map field at the latest. In 2014, Tencent invested RMB 1.2 billion in the map merchant NavInfo. After that, it continued to invest in the land route and Yitutong with Grade A surveying and mapping qualifications.
The map really became hot, or in the 15 years of the O2O war, the sharing of bicycles in 2017, Gaode map and Baidu map group as Ali, Baidu’s map products, vying for O2O group purchase navigation and travel.
Baidu will be Uber, Ctrip, where to go, e driving in 2015Resources such as glutinous rice group purchases are all connected to Baidu maps. These resources are intertwined to cover the O2O service system in the middle and post-tripper stages. In 2017, Baidu maps reached a cooperation with the tricks that had already won fast. In order to defend, Gaode is also busy launching the “Easy Platform” and accessing rental cars, shared bicycles and taxi services.
At that time, for Baidu Ali, the map was only used as a traffic portal. The mobile phone map appears as a platform image, on the one hand, it wins the partners in the O2O direction, and on the other hand, it helps to improve the GMV of other businesses.
The premise of all this is traffic. Therefore, the war on mobile maps was initially robbed around the number of users.
In the early days of , the new way of maps was more homogenous, mainly around audio innovations, such as asking for stars to participate in recording voice packets.
At that time, in order to sprint the land, Gao De test water launched the voice package of Lin Zhiling, Guo Degang and Zhou Xingchi. The Baidu map was not to be outdone, and successively launched the voice package of the stars such as Lu Han and Yang Mi at the time of the fire. Even once invited the boss Li Yanhong platform. According to people in the industry, the production cycle of a voice package is usually around two or three months, and the cost is about 500,000 yuan. The star voice package is very topical, and there are fans who support the economy. The marketing effect has always been very good.
In 2016 and 2017, when Baidu map and Gaode map were glued by ranking, Tencent map was late because of admission, and Tencent was still deeply involved in social games and games. Ali is so big. Now the pattern of mobile phone maps has been fixed – two oligopolistic maps and Baidu maps, the user’s mass and the second echelon represented by Tencent maps have been more than ten times. It can be said that the accumulation of users and traffic in the previous mobile phone map has come to an end.
Mobile Phone Map Market Growth in 2012-2018 From Prospective Industry Research Institute
2.0 era: synergyTraveling
In the map 2.0 era, the mobile phone map industry has evolved over the years, and user growth has entered the ceiling, and the market has matured. At the moment, growth is still the goal of the image seekers, but for BAT, the strategic significance of the map is no longer as simple as the traffic entry. The map is strongly associated with travel, and the map is no longer a tool. It can be to collaborate with the strategy of the big company and is also a weapon in the field of travel.
For Ali, whether Didi belongs to Ali or Tencent is still vacillating, and Haha is mainly two rounds of travel, so Ali urgently needs to support a new travel platform. The transformation of the high-tech map is focused on travel and information ecology. On the shared trip, Gaode’s map has been deeply cultivated for two years in the aggregation mode. In addition to the head-office service providers such as Didi, Shouqi and Cao Cao, Gaode is also promoting small Capacity has formed a capacity pool; at the same time, the collaboration between Gold and Ali is gradually deepening, and the map of Gaode has been opened up with the ecology of Ali’s flying pigs, word of mouth, and hungry. In addition, Gaode is still competing for the resources of To G, and the high-precision map of force, which is also echoed by Ali’s smart city, which is promoting the “car-way coordination”.
Tencent has lost on the map card compared to Ali Baidu. Tencent’s resource investment in maps is much weaker than Baidu and Gaode.The user volume of Tencent’s map is still hundreds of thousands of miles away from Gaode Baidu. Filled in a short time, but with the new entrance of Tencent’s small program, the usage rate of Tencent’s map also has room for improvement.
However, in the game of the trip, Tencent is expanding the mass transit of the US group, and there are two rounds of Moby in the two rounds,but Tencent’s hand< Span> Baidu and Ali’s most enviable traffic resources, firmly grasp the position of Di Jiu Jiu Ge, with Tencent’s expansion in smart travel, the map will definitely play more energy, but it is possible that Tencent has not thought about it yet. it is good.
Compared with Tencent and Ali, Baidu’s competition in travel seems to be slowly falling behind. At the most glorious time, Baidu holds Uber, “51 car”, “everyday car”, Baidu map four cards. However, Baidu’s has been an indisputable fact in the last round of the O2O war: in the online car battle, Ali and Tencent selected the drop, Baidu bet Uber failed, and then it 51 and the daily acquisition failed, marching into the car to blow, plus Baidu glutinous rice and smashing, where to be Ctrip acquisition, Baidu mapThe plan to transform with O2O also failed.
Gao De, Baidu, Tencent Map APP interface comparison
Now Baidu “all in AI” enters the deep water area, Baidu map as Baidu in addition to the search of the fist products, became one of the testing grounds of Baidu AI landing, landing “AI Black Technology” such as voice interaction function, AR walker, AR peripheral search, and future travel prediction.
In addition to sinking, another way to find incrementals is to go out to sea. This is one of the differentiating routes of Baidu map and Gaode map. However, in the overseas market, in addition to the same strong Google map, it is understood that some insiders said that the Gaode map will also have overseas expansion plans. This is enough to alert Baidu.
Baidu wants more and more – Baidu can’t take the initiative to give up travel. In the Internet competition, it doesn’t necessarily win, but not doing it is a big loss.
Baidu Maps has already had a taxi function in 2013, but there has been no splash. Gao De’s recent single-quantity through the aggregation platform has made Baidu covet. In recent months, Baidu’s map is also on the move. Frequently, in addition to the Didi Express and First Auto that have been connected in 2017, the list of recent partners is still increasing, such as Ctrip (Express, Special), Sunshine Travel, etc. Aggregated taxis have been launched in more than ten cities. The method is also very “Baidu”: Baidu map on Weibo invited a number of star propaganda, every Wednesday to give users a car gold. In order to increase the weight, Baidu recently hatched a stranger social product “handset” and tried to map socialize.
In the field of maps, Baidu map has a first-mover advantage. It enjoys the Internet dividend for the first time. It sits in the position of the boss for several years, but in 2018, Gaode expands horizontally by playing C-side scenes, which is in DAU. There is a tendency to go ahead. The real-time data monitored by QuestMobile shows that on October 1, the DAU map of Gaode has already exceeded 40 million maps of Baidu, and there are 8 Tencent maps between Gaode and Baidu maps.
In the PC era, mobile maps are just a tool for querying routes. In the era of mobile Internet, mobile maps have been derived from the underlying infrastructure of shared travel, O2O, and LBS. Both Baidu and Gaode’s examples prove that – if not Behind the strong ecological support, the transformation of the map is still difficult, not to mention synergy and travel.
“The first battle on the map can be turned over, and the key is to look at the future,” said a high-ranking mapt.
Next Battle: High Precision Map
The popularity and maturity of autonomous driving technology has become a must-have item in the car. The demand for B-end car companies is strong. High-precision map has become the next one for BAT. The direction of endeavor. Since 2018, the list of companies with A-level surveying and mapping qualifications in China has doubled from 10 in 2013 to 20, and in the first three quarters of this year alone, four companies have qualified.
Mu Lusheng, Director of Business Development at Gaode Map Auto Business Center, said, “The past few years of autopilot’s dependence on high-precision maps is not strong, and everyone in the industry is hesitating. Is it necessary? Since last year, consensus has been formed.”
Compared with ordinary maps, high-precision maps have a precision of centimeter, more frequent updates, and more elements. In the field of high-precision maps, in addition to Ali Baidu, which already has a layout, and Didi/Mei Tuan/Jingdong, which has its own business or import application, there are also a number of startup companies.
Twilight diagram of NavInfo new high-definition map
For Meituan/Drip and JD.com, the high-precision map is mainly for the purpose of precipitating data, rather than achieving external capability output and liquidation. In the case of Didi and Meituan, the two are competitive with Gaode in the aggregate travel. Didi and Gaode also have a cooperative relationship. Under the complicated relationship, Didi and Meituan are not willing to Continue to put the core data in the hands of people, and then in turn be bound by the map provider. It is understood that as Didi and Goethe’s agreement on the map is about to expire, it is likely that it will give up the ability of Gaode to access the drop chart.
On the other side, Startup companyThe idea on the high-precision map is tightly around the realization of the. The driving of the autopilot is mainly driven by the scene, and the landing speed of the commercial scene is obviously faster, such as sanitation/logistics/mineral/park. The idea of a startup in the field of high-precision maps is mainly focused on the services required to provide automatic driving to landing by relying on high-precision maps.
However, there is no profit in mass production. Now High-precision map players are basically stuck in the data collection phase. The data collection around the relatively closed/small highways has been completed. With the L2 level of assisted automatic driving has become the standard for all models, the market has also raised higher demand for the landing of autonomous driving technology . In the future, urban ordinary roads are the most common scenes for autonomous driving. Urban road data collection has also been submitted by maps, for example, to schedules.
The data collection methods of high-precision maps are mainly divided into two types: centralized mapping and crowdsourcing mapping. Centralized mapping requires companies to collect data by means of collection vehicles, but the cost is extremely high, and the cost of a basic collection vehicle is about 10 million yuan. Therefore, in addition to high-tech/Baidu and other relatively strong financial figures, Due to factors such as cost and collection cycle, the startup/Drip/Meituan mainly adopts the crowdsourcing model, namely Cooperate with the OEM to collect data in real time by using the camera/lidar device on the car to upload the data to the cloud, and then complete the map based on big data analysis.
Although the crowdsourcing model has lower costs, there are also problems such as inaccurate data and missing data, but the win is shorter and more flexible than the bulky collection vehicle. Therefore, centralized mapping + crowdsourcing mode has become a new solution.
Miao Lusheng said, “Gao De map will give priority to collecting roads suitable for autonomous driving in some cities. In the future, road collection in remote areas may adopt crowdsourcing mode, which will be crowdsourcing. The equipment will be laid out after an appropriate upgrade, but it has not yet reached that point.”
The new NavInfo aspect is also indicated, In the field of automatic driving, OEMs, Tier1, autonomous driving technology providers, post-installing ADAS providers, communication technologies and operators, and fleets Operators may become partners in the crowdsourcing model. In the collection of urban roads, the new NavInfo aspect also indicated that there is already a plan to collect cities in the target, and the scope of collection will be around the needs of car companies.
In the image companies, various methods are used to balance data density and cost.