AutoNavi to Build Map-Based Marketplace and Social Platforms
21st Century Business Herald, 1/28/13
Xi Jianjun, VP of Chinese digital map provider AutoNavi (Nasdaq: AMAP), has announced the company's plans to further integrate O2O services into its eponymous mapping app. The company plans to build both a merchandise transaction platform and an SNS platform to integrate online payment and SNS features into the AutoNavi app.
According to Xi, clicking on any point of interest (POI) within the AutoNavi mobile client will soon open up a small POI page allowing users to view offers from nearby stores, make purchases, share content with SNS friends, or any number of other features. AutoNavi will open up its back-end POI platform to online merchants, allowing them to directly post and edit service and product offerings.
Xi hopes to create an open merchant platform, similar to Hangzhou-based C2C & B2C e-commerce site Taobao, and institute a value-added services (VAS) or cost per sale (CPS) revenue sharing model. Xi distinguished the company's new platform from Taobao, noting that AutoNavi's target open platform customers are brick and mortar retailers, as opposed to online retailers. The service will also integrate location-based service (LBS) push notification ads.
In December of 2012, AutoNavi and internet company Sina's (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo microblogging service reached an agreement to allow for users to send location-tagged messages, make location-based searches, and share AutoNavi data with other Sina Weibo users, among other features.
Editor's Note: For more background on this topic, please see "AutoNavi, Sina Weibo Partner on Social Mapping Platform" MD 12/11/12 issue.
Keywords: Xi Jianjun mobile mapping m-commerce wireless B2C SNS open platform AMAP revenue share AutoNavi
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