10 ms·

Just serving up a bunch of maps and satellite imagery is probably one of the easier things to replicate though.

• paganel 8y ago
  You would think so but having closely watched this online maps space for more than 10 years there was almost no-one who managed to really compete with Google on delivering nicer maps and nicer satellite views. Yahoo Maps used to have a more useful reverse geo-location API at the very beginning (I think 2005-2006) but shortly after Google caught up even there and they haven’t been surpassed by anyone since then.
  • roel_v 8y ago
    Sure, I'm not saying it's easy, but still out of all other things they'd be up against, it'd be on the easier side...
    • paganel 8y ago
      Apple tried it and failed, with a much bigger available budget, but, yeah, maybe if Uber manages to hire the right people from the very beginning they might pull it off.
• jhayward 8y ago
  It's one of the most capital and labor intensive things you can do on the internet. Data freshness, depth, and quality are key and don't come cheap.