Ola has announced free access to its mapping service for developers through its AI research arm, Krutrim. The initiative, dubbed #ExitGoogleMaps, offers one year of free access to Ola Maps, with credits worth over ₹100 crore.
Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO of Ola, announced the offer on social media, positioning Ola Maps as a solution tailored for India’s unique mapping challenges. “We’ve been using western apps to map India for too long and they don’t get our unique challenges: street names, urban changes, complex traffic, non-standard roads, etc,” Aggarwal stated.
This move comes on the heels of Ola’s transition from Google Maps to its proprietary Ola Maps, resulting in annual savings of approximately ₹100 crore. The company recently shifted its workload from Microsoft’s Azure to its own Krutrim cloud, signaling a push towards technological self-reliance.
However, Ola faces stiff competition in the sector, particularly from the well-established player MapMyIndia (MMI). According to a report by JM Financial, MMI is the current leader in India’s location intelligence (LI) space, holding about 80% volume share in the OEM market and a growing presence in enterprise and government sectors.
MMI’s coverage spans 99% of India’s geography, with unmatched detailing that includes accurate addresses and street imagery for 100 towns, compared to Google Maps’ coverage of just 10 towns. This level of detail and accuracy has led global players like Uber and Amazon to prefer MMI maps over Google Maps for their Indian operations.
Ola Maps leverages AI-powered India-specific algorithms and real-time data from millions of vehicles. The company claims significant contributions to open-source mapping, with over five million edits made last year alone. Ola’s mapping service is already operational across its ecosystem, serving over a million search queries daily for Ola Electric users.
Industry experts suggest that while Ola’s offering is ambitious, the mapping ecosystem in India is already highly competitive. MMI’s strong foothold and preference by global tech giants present a significant challenge for new entrants like Ola Maps
