Behind the map duos tearing each other： Baidu, Autonavi card position unmanned ＂track＂

　　Baidu’s "driverless" project, which claims to be "three years of commercial use and five years of mass production", is in full swing; while Autonavi, in addition to locking in the government’s demand for smart transportation, uses high-definition maps for free as an entry point and goes straight to the new ecosystem of Internet + car services. Where the future lies for both sides of the "base map" depends on how they choose.

　　The never-ending rift has become the expression of the Internet industry and the pleasure of onlookers.

　　Yu Yongfu, president of Alibaba Mobile Business Group and president of Autonavi Group, "Autonavi DAU has surpassed Baidu, but this is only a small goal" and other public remarks have triggered a war of words between Autonavi and Baidu. Although it is difficult to tell the difference, the increasingly close competition shows that the competition between the two sides for the future map market has just begun.

　　At this time, the time of "Autonavi does not consider business goals within three years" is approaching. Maybe this is just Autonavi’s "statement" to launch a new round of challenges to Baidu. The deeper reason behind it is that maps have long been not a niche industry. As the business it supports becomes more and more extensive, maps have become not only one of the important entrances to the mobile Internet, but also an important support for applications such as takeout, online car-hailing and even future "autonomous driving".

　　What kind of signal is sent for the "first" tear?

　　The latest monitoring data cited by Yu Yongfu shows that the daily active data, daily usage frequency and duration of Autonavi Maps mobile client side (excluding Autonavi navigation and Apple Maps) have surpassed Baidu Maps and become the first mobile map application in the industry.

　　Hours after Yu Yongfu’s speech, Baidu Maps said on its official Weibo account that it "disagreed" and questioned Autonavi’s "700 million users". According to the China Internet Network Information Center, the total number of Internet users in China is 710 million. Baidu said that "Autonavi user growth is like a rocket, and there are not enough Chinese netizens!"

　　Autonavi responded that more than 700 million users refers to the number of covered devices, and the statistics are the number of IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) activations, which is a common means of user statistics in the Internet industry.

　　Not only that, Autonavi also listed that Baidu has been "plagiarizing" for two years: Autonavi Maps’ "Dare to Use and Dare to Pay" travel security service; imitating Autonavi Maps to publish traffic reports, but there are serious deviations in this year’s "Eleven" forecast report; plagiarizing Autonavi’s cooperation with traffic control departments; copying Autonavi’s live broadcast of operating activities to send cars; plagiarizing Autonavi Maps star voice packages.

　　This round of "who is the boss" debate focuses on the third-party data cited by both sides. In fact, for ordinary users, it doesn’t matter who is the first or which map is better. They are more concerned about whose navigation is more accurate.

　　But through this war of words, the outside world can strongly feel the strategic significance of online map business to Baidu and Alibaba.

　　In the world of the Internet of Things, not only mobile phones, but also a series of smart hardware devices such as cars, smart watches and smart bicycles need location travel services. Tian Mi, vice-president of Autonavi mapping technology, said: "At present, the development of the Internet world is facing the development trend of everything is connected, data is everywhere, and demand is different."

　　In addition to the map’s support for existing businesses, the map duo’s battle for autonomous driving technology through maps has become increasingly intense.

　　Force high-precision map, sword point unmanned driving

　　In this war of words, Autonavi promised that "during the development and testing of autonomous cars, Autonavi will provide high-precision map data to partners in the automotive industry for free", marking that the era of traditional map merchants will be a thing of the past, and the construction of smart travel models in the future will usher in great benefits. Of course, this also moved Baidu’s cheese on the layout of next-generation technology.

　　"Automobiles are the next strategic stronghold of the internet map after mobile phones. Whoever can take the lead in completing the integrated product and service experience of mobile phones, cars and machines will be able to come out on top in this incremental market." Yu Yongfu once said in an internal letter. "The development of the Autonavi integrated engine is an important battle for us to distance ourselves from our competitors in the next three years."

　　In October 2015, Yu Yongfu revealed the "one Autonavi, one cloud and multiple screens" strategy in an internal letter, announcing that Autonavi would make the largest R & D investment in history on the integrated engine. As an important result of this round of R & D investment. On September 19 this year, Autonavi Maps released an AI (artificial intelligence) engine. "This is an intelligent tool based on big data capabilities and machine learning capabilities, providing the best location travel service for’thousands of people and thousands of faces’ for different environments and needs," Yu Yongfu said.

　　Autonavi’s description of this engine makes it clear that in the multi-screen development mode, Autonavi Maps will take the lead in connecting mobile phones and car products, representing Autonavi Maps’ judgment on the next development of travel location applications.

　　The high-precision map is different from the mobile phone map commonly used at present, and its positioning of the vehicle’s location can be accurate to the lane in which the vehicle is traveling, which means that the static data of the high-precision map can provide powerful decision-making guidance for driverless cars, which is the cornerstone of the development of driverless cars by Alibaba and Baidu.

　　In 2015, China Ordnance Industry Group Company and Ali jointly invested 2 billion yuan to establish Qianxun Location Network Co., Ltd. to provide Autonavi with high-precision location-based service map products.

　　Baidu started developing high-precision maps as early as 2013, with the aim of conquering China’s complex road environment and allowing autonomous vehicles to drive freely on Chinese roads. So far, Baidu has independently collected and produced a considerable amount of road data, which contains hundreds of attributes, allowing vehicles to self-locate with centimeter-level accuracy, providing a basis for autonomous driving planning and decision-making.

　　Alibaba behind Autonavi is naturally not idle. The Roewe RX5 Internet car jointly built by Alibaba and SAIC is seen as the first step in Alibaba’s exploration of driverless driving, which still requires maps to complete. Therefore, Baidu Autonavi’s war of words with the map duo is just the beginning, and a bigger contest is still to come. Wait and see.

　　extended reading

　　Take a look at the past of Baidu and Autonavi

　　Since the two sides met in the mobile map market in 2011, Autonavi and Baidu have undergone several twists and turns and many rivalries.

　　One industry insider said: "Baidu’s biggest advantage is that it has added an O2O entrance to the map, which allows users to get more convenience. Baidu’s disadvantage is that it is slightly less professional and may not be as accurate as Autonavi. Autonavi’s advantage is that it has the underlying map data resources, which is more professional."

　　Autonavi was once a flag in the field of traditional map navigation. It was a leading player in the sales of map data to automotive customers, and was listed in the United States. As one of the earliest companies in China to carry out high-precision map data collection and technology research and development, Autonavi is in a leading position in the professionalism of high-precision map acquisition equipment, map accuracy and collection mileage.

　　Baidu Maps started a little later than Autonavi, but after Google withdrew from China, it had no competitors in China for a time. However, Baidu Maps did not have surveying and mapping qualifications at first, and its base map data was purchased externally until 2013, when it acquired Class A surveying and mapping qualifications through the acquisition of Daodaotong and Ruitu Wanfang. But until now, Baidu Maps’ main data source still relies on 4D Tu Xin.

　　Although they were not on the same starting line in terms of underlying data, Baidu Maps was ahead of Autonavi in terms of product experience and user-side promotion. In 2005, Baidu Maps only supported 10 cities and could only query basic functions such as routes. By the first half of 2010, Baidu Maps covered more than 55% of the user market share, achieving the first place in the industry and taking the lead in entering the mobile Internet field.

　　However, on May 10, 2013, Alibaba joined the battle and invested $294 million in Autonavi, becoming the largest shareholder of Autonavi Map (accounting for 28% of the shares). In February 2014, Alibaba announced the acquisition of Autonavi and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba Group. In July 2014, Autonavi completed its privatization and delisting. Yu Yongfu, chairperson and CEO of UCWeb, who was also acquired by Alibaba Group, began to oversee Autonavi’s mobile Internet business, and was soon promoted to president of Autonavi Group in March 2015, fully responsible for the overall business of Autonavi.

　　As an exogenous force among Alibaba’s partners, before joining Alibaba, Yu Yongfu was a hot figure in the industry, and he was good at "integration". Unlike Baidu, which attacked O2O, Yu Yongfu slashed the hot O2O business at the beginning of his tenure and announced that he would only focus on travel and location information services. In Yu Yongfu’s opinion, LBS (location-based service, also known as mobile location-based service, Location Based Service) is a very typical mobile Internet incremental business, which is in a very early stage of development.

　　Since then, the map duo have gradually embarked on completely different paths in terms of development strategies.

　　In October 2015, Yu Yongfu announced that Autonavi completed its annual growth target in just half a year, with an active user growth rate of 100%. A year later, Autonavi achieved a growth rate of more than 100% again. At this time, Baidu Maps began to move closer to AutoNavi in strategy, and all businesses such as automobiles and transportation were online.