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"The site will be exactly the same as the London city site which was launched in the UK in the second half of last year," said Toby Robertson, CEO of E-Street (UK). The Dublin site will be available on 30 January.
The site offers a huge range of free information and directions for users within any area of the city. The E-street Dublin operation, which currently employs 5 people, is likely to partner with one of the existing location based mapping companies, which include Bizmaps and Iris, to provide them with GIS information on the city.
Robertson said the service will be extended to include Cork, Galway, and Waterford over the next six months.
Location based information on everything from entertainment and eating out, shopping is available to users either via the Internet on or a more limited service on WAP enabled mobile phones.
E-street has also set up a number of kiosks around London where the public can check for services, facilities and commercial outlets within 500 metres. "The kiosks are attracting around 100 visitors a day and the company is planning to roll out 1200 kiosks throughout the city of London," Robertson said.
He said the majority of revenues for the company come from consultancy for businesses wanting to set up in a city. E-street, using the information collected on requests by users for services in an area, advise a business whether it would be successful on a certain street or not given demand from the public. Advertising is only a very small part of E-street's revenues," Robertson said.
He said the company has a unique database which is 98 per cent accurate and is updated every six weeks to take account of any changes on any street in a city.
Traffic on the Web site varies between 500 and 5,000 visitors a day depending on the proximity to the end of the week. The average visitor to E-street spends 9.5 minutes on the site.
E-street.com also includes news and reviews of places to see, eat and shop as well as on banks, post offices, libraries, sports grounds. It also offers the facility for users to search for directions to businesses in a specific area as well as selected news and updates on events and sales, launches and promotions. Using GIS generated street maps subscribers can then scroll through the directions as they travel to their chosen location.
Users can also submit their own reviews on facilities, entertainment or any of the services included on E-street.
A spokeswoman for the company said, "It is a unique location based service that is groundbreaking in terms of what currently exists in the market."
E-street has always had plans for international expansion and Dublin was always intended as the company's first international city.
The London based version of the service was voted Internet Site of the Year by Internet magazine in the UK. The company employs 35 people in London.
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