HERE Partners with Baidu for Maps on Mobiles Outside China
This is a huge news for Here Maps as a service. In its recent announcement, HERE has partners with Chinese search giant Baidu to supply maps for its desktop and mobile map services outside China. China as a country has 97 million users untapped because of restricted Internet, but when it comes to spending. Chinese tourists spent USD 102 million abroad in 2012. Hong Kong and Taiwan were the most popular locations along with Seoul, London, Paris, Berlin, Zurich, Athens, Barcelona, Los Angeles, Toronto and San Francisco.
Chinese are hooked to Baidu big time as its the Official Search Engine of the country, and they will keep using it when they travel outside. This is why the partnership makes sense. HERE Maps are already famous for their offline maps, accurate turn by turn navigation, maps for stores, malls and nearby places which all of us been enjoying on our Windows Phone.
With a trusted service on board, both HERE and Baidu will retain the trust of their consumers when they are away from home. This will also impact on sales of any country the Chinese tourists will visit.
The desktop version of Baidu Maps uses HERE map content right now, with the Baidu Maps apps for Android and iOS adding content to cover Taiwan first, with other countries to follow. Baidu is the first Chinese company to offer location-based services to locals travelling abroad.
