New Delhi. Homegrown digital navigation company MapmyIndia has questioned Ola’s parent company ANI Technologies’ claim of developing India’s navigational map and called the announcement a “gimmick”. Speaking to PTI-Bhasha after sending a legal notice to Ola Electric, MapmyIndia CEO and Executive Director Rohan Verma questioned Ola’s claim that the map was supplied by a startup Geospoke Private Limited. The company was acquired and became a subsidiary of ANI Technologies.
Verma has questioned the claim of Geospoke Pvt Ltd to supply the map on the basis of its financial records as developing a digital navigation map of a large country like India requires huge investment and expertise.
Verma denied any threat to the company’s business from Ola Maps because the “quality is not good.” He said, “We don’t see any business risk because we don’t get any good product from there. People are complaining everywhere about their (Ola’s) updated cab app, their updated electric vehicle app, about their maps being bad and causing trouble to users. Everyone knows that this is just a mere announcement and a gimmick.”
When asked about this, an Ola spokesperson said, “Ola strongly denies the baseless and motivated statements made by MapmyIndia. This is a clear indication of the company’s desperate attempts to remain relevant by defaming its competitors.” MapmyIndia had sent a legal notice to Ola on July 23, ahead of Ola Electric’s public issue, alleging that Ola Electric violated the terms of the license agreement signed with the company in 2021 to use APIs (application programming interfaces) and SDKs (software development kits) for navigation.