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what3words is an app which, when installed, will provide 3 words which correspond to a location, but the location can only be decoded by someone else who has ac

what3words is an app which, when installed, will provide 3 words which correspond to a location, but the location can only be decoded by someone else who has access to the what3words name resolution service or has the app installed. They've raised $39* million dollars in funding and they're "helping improve businesses around the world, and paving the way for social and economic progress in developing nations" [1]. Because developing nations really want to use a 3rd party app with a 'proprietary naming convention' to help them map and develop their land. [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/what3words https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/what3words

bredren 5y ago
What’s bizarre to me is this company is funded by IKEA, including $20 million this past March.
- dehrmann 5y ago
  I'm a little surprised the locations aren't something like Poäng Ektorp Fintorp.
  - OskarS 5y ago
    Those last two are actually Swedish place names already.
    - hef19898 5y ago
      Are actual place names excluded then from W3W? Or can they be used for a different places three-word combination? The latter would be fun.
meibo 5y ago
Apparently, yes, developing nations are happy to do that: https://qz.com/705273/mongolia-is-changing-all-its-addresses-to-three-word-phrases/ https://qz.com/705273/mongolia-is-changing-all-its-addresses... (Article from 2016 describing how all post addresses in Mongolia were switched to what3words addresses)
pmoriarty 5y ago
"They've raised $39 million dollars in funding" Who's funding them? A boycott may be in order.
- gnicholas 5y ago
  Sony, Intel Capital, and Daimler, among others. I doubt any founders out there would decline funding from VCs on account of them having funded W3W though. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/what3words/company_financials https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/what3words/company_f...
  - bellyfullofbac 5y ago
    Ha, Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes Benz? Although W3W is a scumbag company, telling my car to set destination to some.three.words would be neat. And since it's a Mercedes it should drive me there.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
Closi 5y ago
> Because developing nations really want to use a 3rd party app with a 'proprietary naming convention' to help them map and develop their land. Amazingly this is a big problem that is worth solving. Many countries in Africa don’t have a developed address system with named roads and for the purpose of mail will either use a pin-drop (which can go wrong when described over the phone) or will just write a description (third house down the alley next to the pharmacy) which is very hard to sort and deliver. An example of a country with this issue is Kenya.
- hamilyon2 5y ago
  I don’t see Kenyan or any other African nation language for that matter in their supported languages list. As other people noted it is hard to compete with universality of lat/Lon pair.
  - mparkms 5y ago
    "Kenyan" is not a language. I see Swahili in the list of languages, which along with English is one of the lingua franca of Kenya.
  - ouchjars 5y ago
    Swahili, which they do support, is the national language of Kenya and a lingua franca in the region. They also have Amharic (Ethiopia), Xhosa and Zulu (South Africa). I agree that supporting a finite set of languages isn't accessible enough, though.
  - Closi 5y ago
    > As other people noted it is hard to compete with universality of lat/Lon pair. In order to get sufficient accuracy, you need to state lat/long to 6 decimal points, meaning the full number is c16 numbers long. It’s certainly not particularly user friendly. I’m also not entirely sure what is meant by universality - it’s certainly not commonly used (who knows their own lat/long off by heart?) or commonly used for the location of houses or addresses in most of the world (try sending mail by writing a lat/long on it and popping it through the mail). In terms of things that compete with the ‘universality’ of lat/long - the main thing is address/postcode (although it depends on the use case). You can write my address on a postcard and put it in any post box and it will get to my house - that’s the real universal standard.

bredren 5y ago

What’s bizarre to me is this company is funded by IKEA, including $20 million this past March.

dehrmann 5y ago
I'm a little surprised the locations aren't something like Poäng Ektorp Fintorp.
- OskarS 5y ago
  Those last two are actually Swedish place names already.
  - hef19898 5y ago
    Are actual place names excluded then from W3W? Or can they be used for a different places three-word combination? The latter would be fun.

meibo 5y ago

Apparently, yes, developing nations are happy to do that: https://qz.com/705273/mongolia-is-changing-all-its-addresses-to-three-word-phrases/ https://qz.com/705273/mongolia-is-changing-all-its-addresses... (Article from 2016 describing how all post addresses in Mongolia were switched to what3words addresses)

pmoriarty 5y ago

"They've raised $39 million dollars in funding" Who's funding them? A boycott may be in order.

gnicholas 5y ago
Sony, Intel Capital, and Daimler, among others. I doubt any founders out there would decline funding from VCs on account of them having funded W3W though. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/what3words/company_financials https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/what3words/company_f...
- bellyfullofbac 5y ago
  Ha, Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes Benz? Although W3W is a scumbag company, telling my car to set destination to some.three.words would be neat. And since it's a Mercedes it should drive me there.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

Closi 5y ago

> Because developing nations really want to use a 3rd party app with a 'proprietary naming convention' to help them map and develop their land. Amazingly this is a big problem that is worth solving. Many countries in Africa don’t have a developed address system with named roads and for the purpose of mail will either use a pin-drop (which can go wrong when described over the phone) or will just write a description (third house down the alley next to the pharmacy) which is very hard to sort and deliver. An example of a country with this issue is Kenya.

hamilyon2 5y ago
I don’t see Kenyan or any other African nation language for that matter in their supported languages list. As other people noted it is hard to compete with universality of lat/Lon pair.
- mparkms 5y ago
  "Kenyan" is not a language. I see Swahili in the list of languages, which along with English is one of the lingua franca of Kenya.
- ouchjars 5y ago
  Swahili, which they do support, is the national language of Kenya and a lingua franca in the region. They also have Amharic (Ethiopia), Xhosa and Zulu (South Africa). I agree that supporting a finite set of languages isn't accessible enough, though.
- Closi 5y ago
  > As other people noted it is hard to compete with universality of lat/Lon pair. In order to get sufficient accuracy, you need to state lat/long to 6 decimal points, meaning the full number is c16 numbers long. It’s certainly not particularly user friendly. I’m also not entirely sure what is meant by universality - it’s certainly not commonly used (who knows their own lat/long off by heart?) or commonly used for the location of houses or addresses in most of the world (try sending mail by writing a lat/long on it and popping it through the mail). In terms of things that compete with the ‘universality’ of lat/long - the main thing is address/postcode (although it depends on the use case). You can write my address on a postcard and put it in any post box and it will get to my house - that’s the real universal standard.