MapmyIndia CEO calls Ola Maps a gimmick, warns people: ‘If any Indian…’

MapmyIndia CEO Rohan Verma criticizes Ola's mapping efforts, cites poor product quality and user complaints.

MapmyIndia CEO said that claims of Ola-parent ANI Technologies on developing a navigational map of India are a a "gimmick". After sending a legal notice to Ola Electric, MapmyIndia CEO Rohan Verma questioned Ola's claim that the map has been supplied by a startup Geospoc Pvt Ltd.

Rohan Verma, CEO of MapmyIndia called Ola Maps a gimmick as he warned people against using it.

Denying any risk to his company's business due to Ola Maps as its quality is not good, he said, “We don't see a business risk, because we don't see a good product coming from there. People are complaining left, right and centre, about their (Ola) updated cab app, their updated electric vehicle app, that their maps are pathetic and causing users problems. Everybody knows that these are more announcements and gimmicks, but the quality of that product.”

This comes after MapmyIndia sent a legal notice to Ola on July 23 for breach of terms and conditions of the licence agreement that Ola Electric had signed in 2021 with the company to use APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and SDKs (software development kits). On the notice, Ola said that it “strongly refutes the baseless and motivated statements made by MapmyIndia. They are a clear indication of the company’s desperate attempts to stay relevant by maligning its competitors.”

Rohan Verma said that Ola Electric took the license of its APIs and SDKs and then embedded it and integrated it with their software.

"It is known that building maps is a serious business. It requires long investment of time, capital and expertise. World over, despite many trying, you have very few players globally who sustained or succeeded. It is just not possible that someone can just come up and say suddenly that I have created maps without the right track record and bona fides, let alone somebody that has been actively using map data and APIs and SDKs of some other company for multiple years," he said.

He added, "If any well-meaning Indian goes to visit www.openstreetmap.org, they themselves will realise why it shouldn't be used. The accuracy of these various competitors' maps is definitely something that people will find very much lacking. It's not easy to build an accurate map. On the product side, people should be very careful of these gimmicky, Fly By Night products," Verma said.