Market situation
Last year, there were already 3 billion owners of gadgets with geolocation systems
Leader in the use of navigation systemsrecognized by HERE Technologies. In turn, Google has a strong position in creating and updating points of interest (POI), and remains the most popular location platform among developers, although the change in pricing policy has led to the search for alternatives. Mapbox is successfully developing in the field of map visualization. TomTom has a strong reputation as a provider of automotive products and navigation software.
A 2018 study by Strategy Analytics found that 48% of companies in these industries are active users of geoinformation products.Analytical data confirms progress in the development and implementation of navigational chartsUsers get access to traffic information, coordinatesThe market leaders with navigation devices, according to analysts, are HERE Technologies, Google, Mapbox, TomTom.
Uniqueness roots
International manufacturing companygeolocation platforms and products HERE Technologies began its activities in 1985 in the USA. In the 80s, Barry Carling and his friend Gaen Collins organized a business in the small town of Sunnyvale in California. The very idea to do navigational cartography belonged to Carling, who felt from his own experience that paper maps are an absolutely imperfect thing (especially for the San Francisco region, where Barry arrived for the first time in 1985). Testing of a pilot project of the navigation system was launched specifically for San Francisco, and showed that knowledge of cartography is not everything: the main thing that can help the driver is correctly constructed routes, taking into account all the features of the given area. The development was so innovative that large companies Shields and Prudential risked investing a significant amount in it - as much as $3 million.
Later, in the mid-90s, the company's business modelhas changed: and licensed cartography has replaced habitual navigation terminals - to enable the use of equipment from different manufacturers. At the same time, the company was bought by Philips. Ten years ago, the Map Network became the owner of the company - the largest mapping product supplier in America at that time.
In 2005, the American company NAVTEQ (formerThe name HERE Technologies - “Hightech”) came to Russia - the first office in Moscow was opened. At the same time, it was decided to launch a digital navigation map service. The target audience for which the new project was designed is Russian car owners. The reason for its creation was the increase in the number of cars sold and the demand for this service. In 2007, another office was opened in St. Petersburg, and a year later its representative office appeared in Rostov-on-Don.
In 2008, NAVTEQ acquired Nokia. After 3 years, the company was sold to a consortium of automakers Daimler, BMW, Audi. The company has offices not only in America and Russia, but also in Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Israel, Poland, China, India and other countries.
"The first release of the automotive geolocation mapHERE Technologies in Russia was released in 2007, - says Sergey Starchenkov. - Since then, the product has become more detailed and detailed, there are more types of content. Since the opening of the representative office, in the production of maps and content for Russia, the volume of the company's own investments amounted to 20 million euros. ”
Photo: Anton Karliner / Haytek
Today HERE Technologies division in Russiacollects, partially processes and controls data processing, as well as participates in the preparation of maps and products for release. Release of products is not in Russia, but in Germany and the United States.
Sergey Starchenkov- General Director of the Russianrepresentative offices of HERE Technologies. Graduated from the Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography (MIIGAiK), Candidate of Technical Sciences. After studying, he was engaged in scientific work for more than 10 years, the main directions being the creation of space information and control systems for various purposes; aerospace exploration of the Earth. Since 2007 he has been working for NAVTEQ. Worked his way up from an ordinary employee to a manager for the development of cartographic products in Russia and the CIS countries.
Core solutions
HERE Technologies sells and provideslicensed information and services for such well-known enterprises as BMW, Amazon, Alpine, and its projects are used by giants Microsoft and Facebook. HERE cartographic products are distributed in two hundred countries, about a hundred of them are provided with voice-guided navigation, and 41 countries already have information about traffic on the roads. HERE Technologies offers all major cartographic products in Russia.
HERE Technologies' platforms accept information from 80,000 sources.These include: a global map of vehicles, GPS probe information, sensors on vehicles, as well as open databases of local authorities.
Photo: Anton Karliner / Haytek
“We had to revise the concept of developmentproduct, because it had to become even wider in functionality and the information that people could receive. In real life, car owners need to get access to information about the location of gas stations, shops, cafes and hotels. It is important on which parts of the road traffic jams formed. An ordinary smartphone user is interested in completely different information, for example, where to have a good free time, or in which companies of the city the necessary service is provided. The requirements of all categories of users should be taken into account, ”says Pavel Kozlov.
Pavel Kozlov- Director of Business Development in Russia andCIS countries of HERE Technologies, manages the licensing of digital map databases. Graduate of the Leningrad Military Engineering School of Communications. He served as Sales Director at Philips Consumer Electronics BV. His career in the IT field began as a sales representative at AT&T (now Alcatel-Lucent - Hi-Tech), where he was responsible for introducing retail business to the market, as well as for selling encryption devices to the banking sector. He devoted 4 years to Hewlett Packard, where he managed the “Retail Products” direction in the Russian representative office.
A separate market niche is occupied by corporateservice. Company executives recognize the importance of finding customers using geo-marketing methods. Over the past eight years, HERE Technologies has been actively using cloud technologies. With their help, the development of electronic mapping systems is carried out. In addition to standard work with maps, access to routing and coverage is provided. Such opportunities are relevant to the service sector and trade. In online mode, the optimal variant of the supply chain is calculated. According to Pavel Kozlov, reverse equidistance in time is also visible — from where you can reach the point in 15 minutes.
What HERE Technologies Services Can Do
Today the company has several dozen services - Automotive, Positioning & Tracking, Advertising Data Services, Fleet Telematics and many others. Their range of capabilities includes:
- provision of automotive service, equipment of engine onboard systems;
- mobility and trackingactivities of field staff: this is the calculation of optimal movement, including arrival time, and other systems that provide assistance in organizing transport services;
- the ability to track geoanalytics, geovizualization and processing of other geolocation data;
- mobile assistance in fleet management, including the provision of support for equipment and personnel;
- smart cities are a system for managing public transport and other infrastructure.
The company’s portfolio includes over 40 cartographicproducts. HERE Technologies receives 4.9 billion geolocation updates daily. In addition to the main map of HERE Maps, users have access to high-precision profiles and assess the quality of the road surface.
Photo: Anton Karliner / Haytek
One of the novelties is navigation fortrucks. Geocoding and reverse geocoding services are in great demand (search for coordinates at the address and vice versa - “High-tech”). Other popular services on the platform include maps (visualization, clustering, satellite imagery), indoor navigation (navigation inside buildings), building routes (including walking routes, public transport) and tracking (positioning and tracking objects).
"For its HERE Technologies platformhas developed a special Freemium tariff plan that is suitable for both businesses and ordinary developers,” notes Sergey Starchenkov. — It includes free use of the most popular HERE services with a limit of 250 thousand transactions per month. Recently, services have become even more accessible. For example, for a package of 1 million geocodes, the client will pay only 500 euros.”
Team spirit
In 56 countries around the world, the company's employees aremore than 9 thousand people. There are about 60 project representatives in Russia and the CIS. Most of the team of 9 thousand employees are those who create the map and content. In particular, administrative personnel (HR, accounting), geoanalysts, cartographic engineers, data analysts, community managers, business development managers. The expansion of the company, according to Sergei Starchenkov, is very active. For example, the growth in the number of HERE Technologies employees from 2017 to 2019 was more than 30%.
Main platform HERE Open Location Platformmade it possible to launch various services, including Hazard Warning. This system makes it possible to obtain information about dangerous situations on the roads. If the car owner is approaching a road section where an emergency situation exists or is possible, he will receive a cloud warning from the system about being in the risk zone. This turns on a special signal. Timely alert allows the driver to make an informed decision.
On the creation of Russian projects sometimes workover a thousand employees from around the world. HERE Technologies supports various domestic business ideas, such as the Internet of Things and smart cities. For 5 years, there has been full-fledged cooperation with 30 higher educational institutions of the CIS countries and Russia in order to train specialists in geographic information systems.
Photo: Anton Karliner / Haytek
“Since GIS is a relatively new technology,many did not believe in it, it was difficult to attract investors. Another important problem is the search for personnel, says Pavel Kozlov. — In Russia 5 years ago, no one even suspected the development of the field of geographic information systems. Therefore, it was difficult to find people who could not only program cards, but also come up with solutions to problems and find interesting developments in different areas. To accomplish this task, we created HERE Ambassador, a program that teaches GIS at universities across the country: Higher School of Economics, Baltic Federal University, Southern Federal University, Belarusian State University, Eurasian National University and others.”
Creating a new global geodatabase platform
“HERE Technologies and its analyststhey link the future with a new type of platform, giving the user open access to relevant and popular geolocation data, ”the business development director in Russia predicts.
Based on the forecast of the research companyinternational level Allied Market Reserch, market growth (both domestic and global) geolocation products by 2020 will reach unprecedented volumes - for example, only the commercial direction will bring about $ 50 billion. And in the next five years, the growth rate will reach 18%.
According to Pavel Kozlov, autonomousTransport will actively influence a large number of key economic indicators. For example, in America and Europe, personal manual transportation will be reduced from the current 30% to 8-10%. It is this state of things that allowed the idea to exchange data that were not in demand in the navigation market and the creation of a special platform for this.
Sidebar
Such a platform was the Open Location platform.Platform, the development of which has been HERE Technologies over the past few years. And this is despite the fact that previously the priority of the company was exclusively “closed” type services.
Based on HERE Open Location Platform alreadySeveral new services have been launched. The same Hazard Warning collects terrain-specific data on emergency braking of vehicles, activation of ABS systems and other safety systems, indicating danger on sections of the road.
The platform developers provided not onlythe ability to share existing information (paid or free), but also the creation of completely alternative projects that can even enter into healthy competition with the company’s products.