13 December 2007

Microsoft has agreed to buy Multimap, the privately owned British company. Multimap is the second favourite online mapping service to the dominant Google maps. The deal, thought to be worth slightly above $50 million (£24.4 million), will further expand Microsoft’s fast-growing footprint in online and mobile advertising.

Multimap is regarded as a pioneer in location-based search services. It provides the technology and data that allows a mobile phone to be used to create searches for places of interest (POI) in a certain postcode. The service collates information from 37 sources and the results are supplied in map form.

Multimap’s consumer-orientated website attracted more than four million unique users in the UK during November, according to Nielsen Net-Ratings, the market researcher. It placed the site second in the British rankings, between the market-leading Google Maps, which attracted about 11 million users last month, and Google Earth. Live Search Maps, Microsoft’s existing mapping business, languished in fifth place, with about 868,000 users.

Thilo Koslowski, an analyst for the research and consultancy firm Gartner, said:

The figures show how Microsoft needs to change its game. The acquisition looks like a smart, cost-effective move.

Multimap also operates in the commercial market, where it supplies online maps for websites run by other businesses. Clients include Ford and Royal Mail. The business-to-business service traditionally has delivered the lion’s share of Multimap’s revenues, but the consumer site is growing more quickly, Mr Phelan said.

Delivering adverts specific to a consumer’s location is seen as a key decider in the future of advertising. An example of what lies ahead for mobile phone users is the campaign that Multimap recently ran for the M6 toll-charging motorway. It was served only to consumers looking at maps relating to that area of the country.

Leading mapping sites in the UK:

  1.  Google Maps;
  2.  Multimap.com;
  3.  Google Earth;
  4.  Streetmap ;
  5.  Microsoft (Live search maps);
  6.  ViaMichelin;
  7.  MapQuest;
  8.  AboutMyPlace ;
  9.  TomTom;
  10.  Holiday Watchdog.

Source: Nielsen Online


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