Text/Yan Chen
Edit/Gale
Baidu maps are getting harder and harder to use.
CC, an old user of Baidu Maps, told Zinc Finance that he used Baidu Maps ten years ago. The application interface used to be very concise, and the navigation display information is also clear at a glance, which is very convenient to use. But after the map was revised, it suddenly became a lot more troublesome.
Not long ago, Baidu Maps announced the launch of the second-generation lane-level navigation in a high profile, and also conducted a wave of lottery on Weibo. A variety of function updates seem to bring more convenience to users, but the majority of riders do not buy it. On platforms such as Weibo and Zhihu, many car owners have reported that since using lane-level navigation, they have misdirected the road several times.
"The new split-screen mode made me confused about the specific road conditions, once from Hangzhou to Quzhou to attend a friend's wedding, and I accidentally opened the wrong one." CC added.
Baidu map update screen
After the revision of Baidu Map, the lane-level navigation interface displays a lot of information, and users may not be able to understand it if they look closely, let alone on the high speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour. Although the split-screen mode can also be turned off, manual shutdown is not only very inconvenient for car owners who are driving at high speed, but also has great safety risks.
In addition, CC also found that the revised Baidu map and AutoNavi map are becoming more and more similar, and the page of lane-level navigation is almost exactly the same. In this way, Baidu Map has the suspicion of "imitation".
"Then I might as well go straight to the AutoNavi map." CC said. At present, CC has uninstalled Baidu Maps, and the once loyal user heads have used AutoNavi Maps without looking back.
Baidu Map has more and more functions, but the use experience is getting worse and worse, and it is inevitable that it will eventually be abandoned by users. Behind the frequent revisions is the growing market anxiety of Baidu Maps.
"Roll up" the map market
The current map navigation market, which is basically controlled by BAT, is Baidu Map, Ali's AutoNavi Map, and Tencent Map. Among them, the competition between Baidu Map and AutoNavi Map is the most intense.
According to bida consulting data, in the third quarter of 2019, Baidu Map ranked in the first echelon with a market share of 31%, and in the same echelon as it were AutoNavi Maps, which accounted for 34% and Tencent Maps, which accounted for 16%. In addition, Sogou Map, located in the second echelon, is also a product of Tencent.
Although baidu map and autoNavi map market share is similar. But for Baidu Map, behind this flatness is constantly being chased by AutoNavi.
In 2013, Baidu Maps, which supports panoramic functions, was launched, and Baidu immediately announced that it would provide map navigation services to users for free forever, which completely subverted the industry model of map navigation and allowed Baidu Maps to seize the opportunity. AutoNavi Maps followed the synchronization for free, but the performance was still affected.
Baidu map panorama mode
However, due to the relatively poor liquidity of the map industry, Baidu Maps, which has the support of the parent company, has put a lot of pressure on AutoNavi. AutoNavi was once short of funds and had many difficulties.
Things turned around in 2014, when Ali acquired AutoNavi for $1.1 billion, and since then AutoNavi has gradually got rid of the traditional map model, successfully realized the transformation of the mobile Internet, and integrated with Alibaba's business. AutoNavi and Alibaba share information, data and technology, forming a positive financial effect.
While transforming, AutoNavi Maps is constantly optimizing navigation technology based on map services to improve the accuracy of map data. But on this basic service, Baidu Maps is driving backwards. Previously, Baidu Maps plunged headlong into the O2O business and left navigation services behind. With the fiasco of the business, Baidu Map has not realized the "platform dream" and lost users.
According to QuestMoblie's data, in June 2021, the monthly active user scale of AutoNavi Map was about 630 million, an increase of about 100 million people from 530 million in the same period of 2020, an increase of 18.9%. Among them, 68.8% of the newly installed users come from Baidu Maps. Baidu's monthly active number is relatively backward, according to Baidu's annual report data, Baidu Map's monthly active number in 2020 is 316 million.
Although the tencent map that entered after the entry failed to seize the opportunity, it had a unique advantage in relying on Tencent. Relying on Tencent's rich multimedia content and applications, Tencent Maps can get users from Various Channels of Tencent to drain traffic. However, until now, it still has a big gap with Baidu Map and AutoNavi Map.
In fact, Baidu Map, AutoNavi Map and Tencent Map have not relaxed their occupation of the mobile map market, and behind the fierce competition, the map application has important significance in the future strategic layout.
A commercial layout connected by maps
BAT company wants to form a complete business layout, and the map is an indispensable link.
Throughout the development of head mobile map, there is an evolution of navigation functions to local service platforms, and additions are made around maps. Whether it is Baidu Map or AutoNavi Map, in recent years, they have been building a map ecology with navigation as the core function.
The aggregate taxi mode that is commonplace on mobile maps today is a good example.
AutoNavi took the lead in seeing the opportunity to launch a ride-hailing service in July 2018, accessing third-party platforms such as Caocao Travel, Shouqi Ride-hailing, and Shenzhou, becoming the first online ride-hailing aggregation platform. Since then, the aggregation taxi model has risen, and Baidu Maps and Tencent Maps have also entered the game.
Aggregate taxi mode: left Baidu map, right Gaode map
The online ride-hailing aggregation platform business of mobile maps is essentially a traffic business. As a traffic entrance, the map diverts the user's car demand to the online ride-hailing platform, earns the diversion fee, and hands over the more complex management and scheduling capacity to the secondary platform.
In this way, mobile phone maps not only transform traffic into revenueable items, but also make it a breakthrough in business model and contribute to the construction of its own service ecology.
Behind this is bat's penetration of the local lifestyle through mobile phone maps.
In addition to the aggregation platform, the traffic of mobile maps can also be applied to open-screen advertisements, such as some travel, food, hotel pushes, as well as tour guide business and data services to merchants. By connecting "traditional and non-traditional B-end" enterprises, mobile phone maps have derived multiple commercial products to help BAT complete its commercial layout.
At present, in terms of local life services, AutoNavi Map is doing relatively well. Ali, which started with e-commerce, is more inclined to develop life business, so the focus of AutoNavi Map is also on online car-hailing, wine and tourism and other services. Baidu Map lags behind AutoNavi in this regard, although it is related to market factors, but more critically, Baidu Zhi is not here.
Baidu has taken a fancy to the autonomous driving market, and autonomous driving is closely related to high-precision maps.
But no matter what the intention is, for the current mapping software, maintaining the user base is an important premise for expanding the imagination.
Map bets on smart transportation
"Intelligent transportation will be a major change that will affect the next 10-40 years, so that China's first-tier cities will no longer need to restrict purchases and traffic within 5 years, and basically solve the congestion problem within 10 years." At the Baidu AI Developers Conference at the end of last year, Baidu founder Robin Li elaborated on the future he envisioned.
Looking at China, Baidu is one of the most closely related to autonomous driving technology among Internet companies, and high-precision maps are an indispensable part of autonomous driving. Over the years, Baidu Maps has invested a lot of energy in the research and development of high-precision maps. At present, Baidu Apollo high-precision map market share is the first. Baidu Map is so laid out, it is precisely to grasp the user base under the future intelligent transportation in advance.
In 2017, Baidu appeared at the CES Consumer Electronics Show in the United States, showing its leading technology in the field of high-precision map manufacturing to the world, and launched the world's first open platform for autonomous driving, Apollo, taking the lead in autonomous driving and intelligent transportation.
But at the same time, the potential threats of Baidu Maps have also increased.
Baidu Maps is pinning its hopes on AI technology and trying to form industry barriers. However, at present, whether it is AR walking navigation or the integration of charging pile information across the network, it has not been able to open the gap with AutoNavi Map and Tencent Map. Previously, the "new generation of lane and navigation technology" updated with AI navigation algorithms has also been opposed by many car owners due to its complex design.
Baidu Maps wants to meet the future in advance, but because the navigation service is not done well, even the existing users have not kept it.
Huge deficits are also a problem. Although Robin Li is very optimistic about the development of intelligent transportation, until now, autonomous driving is still in its infancy, and Baidu Map has limited market resources. After the major mobile maps were announced to be free, they did not yet achieve profitability. But in contrast, AutoNavi Map, which focuses on local life services, is more likely to turn a profit than Baidu Map.
In addition, under the wave of automatic driving, AutoNavi and Tencent have their own high-precision map business units, and JD.com, Meituan, and Huawei have also begun to plan their layout. Internet head enterprises entered the market together, and they all stared at this future "cake".
Therefore, Baidu Map will inevitably continue to be anxious, it is in front of the gradual disappointment, choose to flee the user, behind the huge investment, has not yet clear the intelligent future.