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What3Words accounts at Companies House in the UK are extremely interesting. They burned through just over £15,000,000 in 2019, for a total revenue just under £

What3Words accounts at Companies House in the UK are extremely interesting. They burned through just over £15,000,000 in 2019, for a total revenue just under £400,000 from 100+ employees.

jack_riminton 5y ago
I always wondered if they were actually used by anyone then I saw their recent advertising and it seems to focus on emergency services and finding places in large fields I created a project using an alternative method using gifs for directions: http://gif.direct http://gif.direct which I personally think is more useful (if less refined!)
- kawsper 5y ago
  They are dangerous for emergency services, here is a case where W3W showed a location many miles away: https://twitter.com/isleofmandan/status/1386455377949122561 https://twitter.com/isleofmandan/status/1386455377949122561 Someone have also compiled a list of pairs that only differs by one letter, like these two: instants.lightening.precedents instants.lightning.precedents You can see the whole map here: https://twitter.com/cybergibbons/status/1385891425108250626 https://twitter.com/cybergibbons/status/1385891425108250626 I wish they would just use "pluscodes" instead, the algorithm is opensource and doesn't depend on a specific dictionary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Location_Code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Location_Code
  - saalweachter 5y ago
    You also need to distinguish between the contexts where you need addresses versus coordinates. Lat-longs, plus codes, and word-encoding schemes are all coordinates -- they identify a point or area on the globe. Addresses are last-mile navigational instructions. "Apt D, 123 Main St" allows anyone with local knowledge to navigate efficiently to the location indicated: first they drive to Main Street, then they proceed along the ~monotonically numbered parcels to 123, then continue to the apartment labeled "D". The advantage of coordinates is that they don't require local knowledge and can identify arbitrary points; the advantage of addresses is that they encode instructions for land navigation that takes into account which parts of the land are passable.
  - SamBam 5y ago
    Sheesh, lightening and lightning? Not to mention, "instants" when "instance" is also a valid word. Try distinguishing between https://what3words.com/instants.lightening.precedents https://what3words.com/instants.lightening.precedents https://what3words.com/instants.lightning.precedents https://what3words.com/instants.lightning.precedents https://what3words.com/instance.lightening.precedents https://what3words.com/instance.lightening.precedents https://what3words.com/instance.lightning.precedents https://what3words.com/instance.lightning.precedents Three of them are in Australia, two in South Australia. Imagine being stranded in the Outback trying to communicate your location...
- andi999 5y ago
  What is wrong with classical coordinates for emergencies? Like 42 degrees north, 13 minutes and 4.5 seconds?
  - blackboxlogic 5y ago
    I know of one rescue that didn't go smoothly because there was confusion between degrees, minutes, seconds and decimal degrees.
    - selfhoster11 5y ago
      You could just read off a fractional N-W GPS coordinate like an average person. Every smartphone comes with a GPS app these days.
  - stef25 5y ago
    Assuming you're reading these values off a device, most can display them in various different formats. It's pretty confusing and converting them isn't easy either.
    - andi999 5y ago
      Yes, but does a system which uses singular and plural of words as a distinguishing feature really help here. (not saying that there couldnt be a better system based on words)
  - LorenPechtel 5y ago
    It's easier to get confused. And there's still ambiguity. A few months back I was fighting my phone over this--typing degrees/minutes/seconds into Google on a phone isn't easy. I ended up using the calculator to convert it to degrees with fractions. Finding the spot along the road was a pain.
ealexhudson 5y ago
I thought you were kidding, but apparently not. Even worse : £320k of that revenue was from sales to Daimler AG (a shareholder) and is described as "services". I would love to understand the business model here, they've maintained £23M ish cash at hand since end 2017 but I'm not clear what the play here is...
- trollied 5y ago
  I think that £23m is just capital from issued shares. Anyway, it's certainly not viable. I guess it remains to be seen how long investors will keep on chucking money at it to keep it afloat. Filing history, if anyone else is interested: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08430008/filing-history https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c...
  - ealexhudson 5y ago
    No, it's definitely cash and equivalents. The shareholder account is virtually £50m at this point, and they had nothing like that cash until the raises in 2017.
- mbirth 5y ago
  IIRC Daimler wanted to integrate w3w into their onboard navigation units.
tgv 5y ago
You mean people thought they were going to make a load of money with this? And that they spend 5 times more money on this simplistic google maps ripoff than the 40 employee company I work for, which runs a £250k profit? I am baffled.
Doctor_Fegg 5y ago
They've raised over £80m. Astonishing. https://tech.eu/brief/london-based-location-tech-what3words-lands-close-to-12-million-from-ingka-investments/ https://tech.eu/brief/london-based-location-tech-what3words-...
mavhc 5y ago
Costs a lot to get all the free publicity from journalists, got to avoid them pointing out it's a private company trying to control access to a coordinate system, or mentioning any alternatives.
hodgesrm 5y ago
What real-world problem does this product solve that would justify such level of investment? I'm personally horrified by the idea of another geolocation standard in data--it's already a pain dealing with addresses, lat/long, UTM, et cetera, not to mention various representation standards of same. I burned a half day on this exact issue for a data visualization demo last week, so perhaps my antibodies are more current than usual.

What3Words accounts at Companies House in the UK are extremely interesting. They burned through just over £15,000,000 in 2019, for a total revenue just under £400,000 from 100+ employees.

jack_riminton 5y ago

I always wondered if they were actually used by anyone then I saw their recent advertising and it seems to focus on emergency services and finding places in large fields I created a project using an alternative method using gifs for directions: http://gif.direct http://gif.direct which I personally think is more useful (if less refined!)

kawsper 5y ago
They are dangerous for emergency services, here is a case where W3W showed a location many miles away: https://twitter.com/isleofmandan/status/1386455377949122561 https://twitter.com/isleofmandan/status/1386455377949122561 Someone have also compiled a list of pairs that only differs by one letter, like these two: instants.lightening.precedents instants.lightning.precedents You can see the whole map here: https://twitter.com/cybergibbons/status/1385891425108250626 https://twitter.com/cybergibbons/status/1385891425108250626 I wish they would just use "pluscodes" instead, the algorithm is opensource and doesn't depend on a specific dictionary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Location_Code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Location_Code
- saalweachter 5y ago
  You also need to distinguish between the contexts where you need addresses versus coordinates. Lat-longs, plus codes, and word-encoding schemes are all coordinates -- they identify a point or area on the globe. Addresses are last-mile navigational instructions. "Apt D, 123 Main St" allows anyone with local knowledge to navigate efficiently to the location indicated: first they drive to Main Street, then they proceed along the ~monotonically numbered parcels to 123, then continue to the apartment labeled "D". The advantage of coordinates is that they don't require local knowledge and can identify arbitrary points; the advantage of addresses is that they encode instructions for land navigation that takes into account which parts of the land are passable.
- SamBam 5y ago
  Sheesh, lightening and lightning? Not to mention, "instants" when "instance" is also a valid word. Try distinguishing between https://what3words.com/instants.lightening.precedents https://what3words.com/instants.lightening.precedents https://what3words.com/instants.lightning.precedents https://what3words.com/instants.lightning.precedents https://what3words.com/instance.lightening.precedents https://what3words.com/instance.lightening.precedents https://what3words.com/instance.lightning.precedents https://what3words.com/instance.lightning.precedents Three of them are in Australia, two in South Australia. Imagine being stranded in the Outback trying to communicate your location...
andi999 5y ago
What is wrong with classical coordinates for emergencies? Like 42 degrees north, 13 minutes and 4.5 seconds?
- blackboxlogic 5y ago
  I know of one rescue that didn't go smoothly because there was confusion between degrees, minutes, seconds and decimal degrees.
  - selfhoster11 5y ago
    You could just read off a fractional N-W GPS coordinate like an average person. Every smartphone comes with a GPS app these days.
- stef25 5y ago
  Assuming you're reading these values off a device, most can display them in various different formats. It's pretty confusing and converting them isn't easy either.
  - andi999 5y ago
    Yes, but does a system which uses singular and plural of words as a distinguishing feature really help here. (not saying that there couldnt be a better system based on words)
- LorenPechtel 5y ago
  It's easier to get confused. And there's still ambiguity. A few months back I was fighting my phone over this--typing degrees/minutes/seconds into Google on a phone isn't easy. I ended up using the calculator to convert it to degrees with fractions. Finding the spot along the road was a pain.

ealexhudson 5y ago

I thought you were kidding, but apparently not. Even worse : £320k of that revenue was from sales to Daimler AG (a shareholder) and is described as "services". I would love to understand the business model here, they've maintained £23M ish cash at hand since end 2017 but I'm not clear what the play here is...

trollied 5y ago
I think that £23m is just capital from issued shares. Anyway, it's certainly not viable. I guess it remains to be seen how long investors will keep on chucking money at it to keep it afloat. Filing history, if anyone else is interested: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08430008/filing-history https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c...
- ealexhudson 5y ago
  No, it's definitely cash and equivalents. The shareholder account is virtually £50m at this point, and they had nothing like that cash until the raises in 2017.
mbirth 5y ago
IIRC Daimler wanted to integrate w3w into their onboard navigation units.

tgv 5y ago

You mean people thought they were going to make a load of money with this? And that they spend 5 times more money on this simplistic google maps ripoff than the 40 employee company I work for, which runs a £250k profit? I am baffled.

Doctor_Fegg 5y ago

They've raised over £80m. Astonishing. https://tech.eu/brief/london-based-location-tech-what3words-lands-close-to-12-million-from-ingka-investments/ https://tech.eu/brief/london-based-location-tech-what3words-...

mavhc 5y ago

Costs a lot to get all the free publicity from journalists, got to avoid them pointing out it's a private company trying to control access to a coordinate system, or mentioning any alternatives.

hodgesrm 5y ago

What real-world problem does this product solve that would justify such level of investment? I'm personally horrified by the idea of another geolocation standard in data--it's already a pain dealing with addresses, lat/long, UTM, et cetera, not to mention various representation standards of same. I burned a half day on this exact issue for a data visualization demo last week, so perhaps my antibodies are more current than usual.