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On-line mapping business booms
Monday, September 23 2002
by Andrew McLindon


On-line mapping ventures are among the most popular European travel Web sites and
one of them could become the next Google, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.

The research agency found that sites such as HREF="http://www.multimap.com">Multimap.com and HREF="http://www.streetmap.co.uk">Streetmap.co.uk in the UK, HREF="http://www.mappy.com">Mappy.com in France and HREF="http://www.map24.com">Map24.com in Germany, have experienced growth
around the 300 percent mark over the last year. 

 

In total, 2.5 million users visited an on-line map site during October 2001 and
by July 2002 this had risen to 7.1 million, with the biggest increases occurring
in June and July. Such expansion, said Nielsen//NetRatings, makes the on-line map
sector one of the fastest growing Internet markets in Europe.  

 





In both France and the UK, a mapping service is the most visited of all on-line
travel sites. Mappy.com in France, for instance, has a unique audience of
947,000, while Multimap in the UK is more popular than the likes of
Lastminute.com and Expedia.co.uk with a unique audience of 1,441,000 during
August 2002. 

 



Streetmap.co.uk is also popular with British Internet users. It came in ahead of
the sites for airlines EasyJet and British Airways at number four in the top 10
visited travel sites in the UK with nearly 700,000 unique visitors.

 



Nielsen//NetRatings also found that such sites tend to be viewed more often by
people when they are at work. According to the research company, the reach of
several of the mapping sites was double for at-work surfers when compared to
those surfing in the home. This, it said, indicated that workers are using these
sites before going to meetings or for arranging to go out after work. 

 



Although the popularity of mapping sites could be partly attributed to them being
free, Tom Ewing, European analyst with Nielsen//NetRatings, said they have
"enormous potential" to become revenue spinners. "These sites are a great
example of the Internet making a practical difference in people's lives. Whilst
at present, the majority of these sites provide their information for free, there
is a possibility to generate revenue from them in the future," said Ewing.

 



Ewing also said that adding local information and Global Positioning System (GPS)
technology to mapping sites will make them even more attractive to Internet users
and could lead to one of them becoming the travel equivalent of search engine
Google, which is among the top five destinations of American Internet users. 
"Currently, there may be two or three local mapping sites in every market, but
there is no key pan-European player as yet. If you're looking for the 'new
Google', this sector is an interesting place to start," he remarked.