Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon Team Up to Fight Google Maps' Domination

Online maps are critical for many mobile apps and emerging technologies, such as food delivery apps like Swiggy, but they are primarily controlled by two digital behemoths: Google and Apple. These companies charge app developers to use their maps as a service but do not provide the underlying data that powers them. A new venture launched by Meta, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and TomTom hopes to change that.

Overture Maps Foundation: Use of AI

The Overture Maps Foundation, founded late last year, is a collaborative effort to generate and maintain open and accessible base map data that anybody may use to build their maps. The foundation has 59 million places of interest, such as restaurants, landmarks, streets, and regional borders, and wants to update them regularly using artificial intelligence and other techniques.

In an interview with CNBC, Marc Prioleau, executive director of OMF, stated that there are companies that "if they wanted to invest in building the map data, they could." Conversely, companies would instead "just get collaboration around the open base map" and spend that much money.

Because Google and Apple Maps do not allow access to the data behind them, they are unsuitable for many businesses. These companies provide their maps as a service, frequently charging app developers for each map request via an API.

App developers can personalise their maps with unique information

Meanwhile, app developers can personalise their maps with unique information, such as pickup locations for delivery services, and avoid paying fees to Google or Apple by using Overture's more readily available data. The foundation provides only the primary data, leaving it up to other companies to build apps on top of it.

Overture aspires to be a more credible and curated alternative to OpenStreetMap, a crowdsourced map resource used by Meta in its maps. It also hopes that its members will give enough real-time data to allow for the frequent delivery of correct updates rather than a one-time data dump. Prioleau intends to employ AI and other automated ways to accomplish this.

What does this mean?

Overture might signal a dramatic shift in the internet mapping sector. Google and Apple currently control the great bulk of the market, and they charge app developers exorbitant fees to access their maps. This has made it harder for smaller enterprises to compete and has hindered innovation in this field. Overture could provide map makers additional options and control over their maps.