Tencent announced that it will officially remove the Tencent Map PC terminal on November 11, 2022. As one of the earliest online map services in China, Tencent Map was renamed from the original SOSO map in 2013, and at the same time integrated the resources of Sogou Map (Sogou was acquired by Tencent in 2021, and its Sogou Map business was officially removed from the online map on May 15, 2022).
integrates Tencent Map of Sogou Map and quickly reformed the business section. The cancellation of the PC side is a business optimization and integration of Tencent Map. Many people mistakenly think it is information that Tencent Map is about to close.
Many people may not be optimistic about the PC shutdown of Tencent Map. After all, compared with Baidu Map and Gaode Map, Tencent Map has quite few users on the PC side, otherwise Tencent would not choose to close the PC side of Tencent Map. The only thing that makes people curious is whether WeChat on the PC side can use the WeChat positioning function normally after the PC side is closed.
Some people may think that WeChat will continue to provide similar services, but during the period when Sogou Map is about to be closed, the WeChat positioning function, which originally used Sogou Map as the main navigation platform, was once unavailable. After receiving the location sharing, users of WeChat on PC click to open it and will see a QR code prompt to scan the code on their mobile phone to download the Tencent Map APP.
Source: Tencent Map
If Tencent Map replicates previous operations, it will obviously have an impact on the normal use of WeChat users on the PC side. However, with the lessons learned from the past, the basic functions of Tencent Map's PC side may be retained to provide WeChat users with basic navigation and positioning services.
No matter what, Tencent Map's PC side will stop service after November 11. It's a bit subtle. There is always a feeling that Tencent Map plans to live the whole life. If there is no variable next, then this online map software with the third largest market share will exit the PC market.
The Dilemma of Tencent Map
For Tencent, their online map service section actually started very late, and it included its predecessor SOSO map in time. So far, it has just been its 10th anniversary. Tencent Map's rival Gaode Map was founded in 2002 and was formerly a GIS service provider. Sogou Map, which was merged by Tencent Map, was earlier, and was formerly an Internet map service website established in 1999.
Even the latest Baidu map, which entered the market at the last three, was established seven years earlier than Tencent Map, and began to provide map services to domestic users in 2005. As an online map service provider that started in 2012 and officially operated in 2013, Tencent is one of the latest players to enter the market in this industry, facing opponents who have been working in the market for ten or even more than ten years.
Gaode Map has always had a high market share in the commercial field with its technological advantages, while Baidu relies on its absolute advantages in the Chinese engine field to allow users to jump to Baidu Map when searching for relevant locations. For example, the map guidance section in popular science services such as Baidu Encyclopedia also uses the Baidu Map interface.
Source: Baidu
The above advantages make Baidu Maps almost invincible on the PC side. Without the rapid growth of the subsequent mobile market, Baidu Maps should be able to occupy more than 80% of the domestic PC online map service market share. However, the development speed of the mobile market exceeded the expectations of many Internet companies. People were talking about mobile almost overnight, and PC seemed to have become a product of the old era.
With the rapid development of mobileization, all manufacturers are facing the demand for mobile application. Baidu and online map service providers such as Gaide and Tencent are once again standing on the same starting line. It can be said that there is no opportunity for mobileization this time. Tencent has shut down Tencent map services several years ago. In the early stages of the release of mobile APP, if you were an early smartphone user, you might remember that there was a time when online map service providers such as Gaode and Baidu spent money to invite users to use the map APP.
In commercial terms, the online map service software at that time also provided commercial portal access services for other APPs at a free price (of course it is now charged). At the same time, it worked hard to access various third-party services, such as takeaway, e-commerce and other locations for delivery personnel, group buying, travel hotel and other locations for destinations, etc., and basically all of them are provided by the above three map service providers.
As part of the Tencent Empire section, Tencent Map was actually highly valued in the early days. Ma Huateng once paid great attention to this section and required the launch of a street view system similar to Google . Therefore, Tencent Map is also the earliest map service provider in China to launch a street view model.
However, for users, the Street View mode is not a high-frequency and urgently needed function. It only happens when the location cannot be accurately located through the map and needs to be confirmed by the surrounding building reference objects. The Street View mode requires the service provider to send a large number of vehicles to shoot and process image data, which is extremely costly. Therefore, Baidu Street View has stopped updating in many second- and third-tier cities and county towns. Even now when opening Tencent Map, you will see that the Street View function is being upgraded and optimized, and the relevant entrance has disappeared.
Source: Tencent Map
The street view function that costs money is not cared about, and there is no Baidu's search engine traffic and Gaode's professionalism. The only thing Tencent can do is to maintain the market of WeChat and related service sections. However, in software such as WeChat, QQ, the frequency of navigation and positioning functions is actually not high. Many times, people agree to meet in the place where they meet will be chosen in their own familiar places. Only when they are separated by accident will they consider using the navigation function to find the other party's location. How to expand its business section and let more users know that they are the biggest dilemma facing Tencent Maps. Tencent Maps, which cannot break through, has largely lost the ability to compete with Baidu Maps and Gaode Maps. Will Tencent Map be cut off? A market research report shows that among the current online mobile map service providers, Gaode and Baidu have a market share very close. Thanks to the reputation formed by Gaode over the years and the rapid entry in the early stage of the development of the mobile market, it successfully ranked first in China with Baidu. Data shows that the two together account for 66% of the mobile map market share, Gaode is 33% and Baidu is 32.7%. The second echelon of is Tencent Map, ranking third in the country with a share of 15%. The market share seems to be quite large, but in the online map market, users often do not use multiple map software at the same time. To a large extent, daily users have been divided up by Gaode and Baidu. Tencent Map users are basically connected from Tencent's APPs such as WeChat. At present, Map APPs of online map service providers such as Baidu and Gaode have become integrated APPs for various businesses such as taxi, tickets, and travel, and are no longer limited to traditional functions such as navigation. In the early stages of rapid development of mobile terminals, service providers such as Gaode have realized this and have seen the future of online map services on mobile terminals in advance. Source: Gaode Map Now it seems that the giants' predictions are not wrong. Regardless of Baidu Map, as a piece of Baidu's Internet matrix, it plays a linkage role in multiple product sections under Baidu. Moreover, with the increase in navigation demand for online shopping guides, group buying and other software, online maps have become one of the mobile services that users have the most contact with in daily life. But here it is far from over. As the competition among service providers comes to an end, a new cake appears in front of everyone again: autonomous driving. Although autonomous driving is still in its early stages, whether it is domestic policy inclination or capital investment, it indicates that this industry will grow into a huge market in the next 10-20 years. In order to seize this market, Baidu and Gaode are doing their best to devote their resources to cooperate with various car companies and AI companies to create a future smart travel business matrix.In May this year, Baidu incorporated Baidu Maps into the IDG business group, and Alibaba fully integrated Gaode into the local life service map, launched a large number of life-related functions, and successively contacted many car companies and autonomous driving companies. In the face of frequent actions of the two major competitors, Tencent also responded. On July 25 this year, Tencent announced that it would divide the map business into three. The newly established map product department is responsible for C-end applications, the Digital Twin Product Department is responsible for B-end applications, and the original department is responsible for basic map capabilities and product construction. Source: Internet More detailed division means that Tencent has decided to invest more resources and energy in the map section to compete for this new cake. In March this year, Tencent Travel was launched, which was also an attempt by Tencent in the travel field. With the method of spending money and subsidies, Tencent Travel has covered more than 100 cities in four months, showing an astonishing growth rate. Then, let’s discuss the questions such as “will Tencent Map be cut off”. In fact, there has been an answer. The cancellation of the PC side is essentially Tencent Map’s adjustment to the business section, allocating PC teams with low opening and low usage rates to other teams to accelerate the implementation and development of new businesses. With the second launch of Tencent Maps, we may see the second "Map APP War" in the next period of time.
