The following is a guest post from Ali Husain, a consultant at Navigate.
While Web3 has provided an alternative to the dominance of Big Tech companies in many aspects of the technology sector, it has yet to overcome the duopoly dominance of Google Maps and Apple Maps in the digital mapping market. According to a report from Gitnuxthis duopoly is maintained by Google and Apple’s existing market share strength and by their significant resources, which allow them to develop features like Google Street View to the extent that other projects cannot compete.
The dominance of these two companies has also forced others in Big Tech to come together to penetrate the market. Companies like Microsoft, Meta and Amazon have agreed to… Overture Cards Foundation to challenge Google and Apple’s dominance in digital maps. In this context, where even some of the most influential Big Tech companies are struggling to gain a foothold, can Web3 provide the means to bring more competition and innovation to the digital mapping market?
How is Big Tech’s dominance robbing innovators?
Big Tech’s dominance of the market has driven up costs for innovators. For example, Google and Apple Maps do not provide access to their underlying data. As for Google Maps, app developers pay fees to Google through the Google Maps API per thousand Google Maps searches. Apple charges developers for usage MapKit JS to embed the map directly into their websites and applications.
The street view features of these maps are also often outdated, especially in more remote areas outside urban centers. While there is room for improvement, very few companies can match the resources of the tech giants, and as such, both Google and Apple have little incentive to improve the quality of their services in these more remote areas.
This adds an additional layer of cost to the start-up process for many entrepreneurs, at a time in the business development process where financial resources are limited. The Overture Maps Foundation tries to give developers a cheaper alternative, but still only provides underlying data. There is an urgent need for further decentralization and a shift from Big Tech in the digital mapping market to deliver even greater savings for developers and innovators.
In addition to digital maps, both Google and Apple dominate the smartphone market, with an established duopoly over the smartphone market market for apps and browsers. This allows companies to offer their own mapping service as a default option to smartphone users and their other proprietary applications, furthering the duopoly and dominance of Big Tech.
Big Tech also collects data collected through user contributions from smaller companies. Google acquired Waze in 2013 for $1.1 billion, allowing the tech giant to integrate Waze features with Google Maps. In this case, Google itself has benefited, but the question remains: what has the community of Waze users gained from this? This is where Web3 has the potential to provide solutions and reward users for their crowdsourced data.
Is Web3 the solution?
As with many aspects of the technology landscape, the fundamental Web3 characteristics of decentralization and empowering end users provide the basis for challenging Big Tech’s dominance in digital mapping. Several companies have already begun efforts to build decentralized card networks based on blockchain. Such systems can enable end users to reap the tangible benefits from their data and also become contributors to a global network.
Instead of having to rely on the immense and precious resources of Big Tech companies, Web3 projects can use near real-time user data sourced from dashcams, drones and other video devices of people around the world. Crowdsourcing user-generated imagery offers many benefits and reduces overhead costs because companies do not have to pay and equip significant numbers of employees to travel great distances to capture images.
Web3 can also empower users by letting them take advantage of their own data. The vast wealth of user data has enabled Big Tech’s dominance in the digital mapping space that they have amassed over time. To counter this, Web3 mapping platforms can encourage people interested in Web3 or community-driven mapping platforms to contribute their data and images to grow the project – perhaps the pinnacle of decentralization and supporting the entirety of Web3.
What’s next for the digital mapping market?
The question is not whether there is opportunity for Web3 to challenge the dominance of Apple and Google in the digital mapping market, but rather what it will take to realize that potential. There is now a choice between continuing with the status quo and letting Big Tech dominate the market, or opting for a new, innovative approach using blockchain technology. Considering the outlined benefits of a Web3 mapping platform for entrepreneurship, competition and user empowerment, the choice is clear.