Which one do you choose: Amap, Baidu Map, or Tencent Map?

Smartphones are now completely popular. From 3-year-old children to 80-year-old elders, everyone uses a smartphone. This has greatly facilitated our lives because it has added a lot of fun to our lives.

Now every mobile phone has a navigation software. Amap, Baidu Map and Tencent Map have become the three most important navigation software in mobile phones. I have all three navigation software in my mobile phone.

Today, based on my understanding of these three software and my daily usage, I will analyze the advantages and disadvantages of different navigation software.

1. Current status of use

As travel demand continues to increase, users' reliance on mobile map apps has gradually deepened, and mobile maps have gradually become a must-have tool for people's lives. According to a survey, the overall active user scale of the mobile map app market in the third quarter of 2019 was 784 million, and the user scale has maintained a steady growth compared with the previous year.

The current Chinese mobile map market is stabilizing, with Amap and Baidu Map competing for supremacy, and Tencent catching up quickly. According to data, in the third quarter of 2019, Baidu Map ranked first with 559 million active users in the Chinese mobile map application market; Amap ranked second with 557 million; and Tencent Map ranked third in the industry.

In general, Baidu Maps currently has the most comprehensive functions, followed by Amap, while Tencent Maps is relatively weak.

2. Main functions

1. Positioning

All three can perform 2D/3D rotation positioning. Their positioning accuracy is similar, but the degree of precision is: Amap > Tencent Map > Baidu Map

In cities, Amap, Tencent Maps and Baidu Maps have the highest utilization rates and there is no comparison.

In Inner Mongolia, it is best not to use Baidu Maps. I have been deceived by routes many times.

2. Voice Search

Amap uses Xiaode voice assistant, Baidu uses Xiaodu voice assistant, and Tencent uses Dingdang voice assistant.

Judging from the comprehensive voice recognition accuracy and response speed, the relationship between the three competing products is: Xiaodu > Xiaode > Dingdang.

3. Route planning

Both Amap and Baidu Maps support route planning that is subdivided into the following ten categories: taxi, driving, public transportation, walking, cycling, train, airplane, bus, motorcycle, and truck. Baidu also supports "smart travel" route planning, which recommends more reasonable routes for users based on artificial intelligence technology. Tencent Maps only supports four travel route planning methods: driving, public transportation, walking, and cycling.

4. Route recommendation

After comparing the recommended routes of the three, Tencent Maps tends to prefer routes with shorter distances and fewer turns; while Amap and Baidu tend to prefer routes with shorter travel time. However, their judgments on time are different. For the same route, Amap thinks it will take 6 minutes, while Baidu thinks it will only take 5 minutes.

5. Bus routes

After comparing the bus routes recommended by the three, it was found that Amap tends to prioritize time, Baidu Map tends to prioritize fewer transfers, and Tencent Map tends to prioritize the subway.

3. Advantages and Disadvantages Analysis

Conduct a macro analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of Amap, Baidu Maps, and Tencent Maps.

1. Amap

Advantages:

• Focusing on navigation functions, it covers 3.52 million kilometers of road conditions in 364 cities across the country and provides detailed and accurate map data;
• We provide a wide range of LBS services and are committed to building smart cities and smart transportation.

shortcoming:

• In some places, there is a lack of consideration for details. For example, in the search recommendation column, when searching for a place, only the place name, rating, and number of reviews are displayed. There is a lack of specific location segmentation under large places;
• Maps of smaller construction sections update information slowly;
• The offline map package is incomplete.

Optimization suggestions:

• Focus on user experience details and enrich displayed data content;
• Enrich the sources of road information collection, use big data for real-time calculations, and provide predictions for road congestion.

2. Baidu Maps

Advantages:

• We have developed special features by combining artificial intelligence technology with map services, such as AR real-scene navigation, which completely solves the problem of people with poor directions, and improves the user experience and playability of the product;
• Pay attention to details in development, and display rich information and comprehensive considerations in search, detail page display, etc.
• Provide diversified LBS services.

shortcoming:

• Maps of smaller construction sections update information slowly and cannot reflect road conditions in a timely manner;
• Offline maps are mainly downloaded by province and municipality, which takes up a relatively large amount of space and has problems in use;

Optimization suggestions:

• Combine artificial intelligence and big data to deepen the basic data of Baidu Maps and enhance the efficiency of basic data collection and review;
• Combine big data and artificial intelligence technology to judge the actual conditions of roads and intersections in real time.

3. Tencent Maps

Advantages:

• The page is concise, making it easy for users to find the functions they need;
• Combined with multiple products under its own brand, it can achieve user flow; for example: cooperate with Honor of Kings to launch voice related to King's heroes to attract young user groups and cooperate with WeChat to launch bus QR codes for easy use.

shortcoming:

• The travel mode is too simple, and the services provided to both car-owning and car-owning users are relatively simple;
• The Explore Nearby module currently only supports service searches based on the system's current location. When the user wants to further search for a specific location, the location cannot be switched according to their needs.

Optimization suggestions:

• Although the service of exploring nearby is already provided, it is possible to consider adding a nearby search service that allows users to switch locations at will;
• You can consider increasing the diversity of travel modes, such as cooperating with third-party taxi service platforms to provide taxi-hailing services.
• Add detail optimization, such as adding a sharing function when taking a screenshot of a bus route map, instead of just saving the screenshot to the album.

Through the previous competitive product analysis, the differences between the three companies in core functions are not obvious, and they can all meet the basic needs of users for navigation map services. Amap focuses on the development of basic functions, and Baidu Maps focuses on special function services based on artificial intelligence. However, with the improvement of mobile map product functions and the support of intelligent technology, the demand for personalization and fun has gradually become prominent, and will become one of the means for manufacturers to compete for user loyalty. Letting users enjoy map services in a fun process is the key improvement direction in the future.