Didi quietly enters the market, and the battle for high-precision maps in China is reignited

Recently, the Didi Chuxing APP quietly launched the "navigation" function in some cities, and the built-in map used a map with the "Didi Map" logo for the first time. The previous Gaode map has disappeared.

■Navigation function available in some cities

It is understood that Didi's navigation function has always been available on the driver side, and is currently being tested on a small scale on the passenger side. In the Didi Travel APP, a reporter from China Automotive News checked the user interfaces of different cities and found that some cities such as Shenzhen, Chengdu, Zhongshan, and Dongguan already have navigation function entrances, but they have not yet been popularized nationwide. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, etc. do not have them yet.

However, the reporter found that this does not mean that the navigation function cannot be used in the above cities. For example, the reporter is in Beijing. After opening the mobile phone positioning, he selects Chengdu on the top city page, clicks "Navigation", and enters a shopping mall in Beijing. Then he can still enter the voice navigation, but the driving navigation route is automatically displayed. Unlike Baidu, AutoNavi and other products, it does not support cycling or walking navigation.

On the Didi navigation page, the built-in map shown below is Didi Map, while it was previously Gaode Map. In comparison, Didi Map is slightly lacking in road display and annotation. In addition, the reporter noticed that in addition to navigation, the Didi navigation page also has nearby recommendations like other map software. After entering the destination, the "Nearby Recommendations" will directly display "food", "shopping", "entertainment and leisure" and other places near the destination according to the distance, which is clear and concise.

■DiDi Maps enters the market

When it comes to maps, the public is more familiar with Baidu and AutoNavi, and Didi has also been eyeing the map business for a long time. As early as October 2017, Didi's subsidiary Didi Map (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. submitted an application for Class A surveying and mapping qualifications to the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geographic Information. In December, Didi obtained Class A surveying and mapping qualifications for navigation electronic map production and officially entered the map industry. After obtaining the qualifications, Didi has the opportunity to become a high-precision map drawing company and sit on an equal footing with Baidu, AutoNavi, NavInfo and others.

With the launch of Didi Maps, the competition among Didi, AutoNavi and Baidu has come to the fore. Didi launched its map and navigation business, which is currently mainly for its travel business, while Baidu and AutoNavi use maps as a basis to expand into travel, food delivery and other businesses. Now, the three companies have different degrees of overlap and competition in various businesses.

Didi Map's battle is destined to be difficult. The "China Mobile Internet 2020 Half-Year Report" released by the third-party organization QuestMobile at the end of July showed that in June 2020, the number of apps with MAU (monthly active users) exceeding 100 million reached 54, and Didi was not among them. In the "Map Navigation" industry category, only Amap and Baidu Map made the list. Among them, Amap ranks first in the industry with more than 530 million MAUs and fifth in the entire network; Baidu Map ranks second in the industry with more than 420 million MAUs and 16th in the entire network. It is conceivable how difficult it is to get a share of the map market that is almost divided by two giants.

However, Didi's entry into the map business has its own reasons. Although Didi previously cooperated with AutoNavi Maps, as the business continues to expand, Didi also has its own ideas. By laying out the map business, Didi can not only take the map and navigation business into its own hands and empower travel services, but also use the passenger and driver data accumulated over the years to optimize the navigation and map business, thus forming a good data closed loop and getting rid of the influence of other map vendors.

■High-precision map competition

Didi launched mapping and navigation functions, which not only serve its travel business but also provide support for the implementation of autonomous driving.

Various signs show that Didi intends to compete for the top position in the field of autonomous driving. As early as 2017, Cheng Wei, founder, chairman and CEO of Didi Chuxing, said: "Didi will be the only driverless company that survives besides Google." In May 2018, Didi Chuxing obtained permission to test autonomous vehicles in California, USA. In September 2018, Didi obtained a license for road testing of autonomous driving technology in Beijing. In November 2018, Didi officially established Didi Lab in Toronto, Canada, focusing on intelligent driving and artificial intelligence research. In August last year, Didi announced that its autonomous driving department was upgraded to an independent company, focusing on autonomous driving research and development, product application and related business expansion.

For autonomous driving, maps, especially high-precision maps, are an indispensable technology. Baidu, AutoNavi, NavInfo and others are actively making plans and investing a lot of capital. Among them, Baidu Apollo's high-precision maps have reached the world's leading level and cooperated with car companies such as BYD, Chery, Great Wall, Hyundai, and BAIC New Energy. AutoNavi cooperates with Bosch, NVIDIA, Qianxun and others in high-precision maps, and has been applied to Cadillac CT6. NavInfo cooperates with BMW, Daimler and other car companies to provide high-precision map services for autonomous driving.

Now, Didi has also joined the map competition. Given the importance of high-precision maps in autonomous driving, self-developed maps are indeed a necessary step for Didi, but if Didi wants to reach a level that can compete with Baidu, AutoNavi, and NavInfo, it still needs to go further.