The Indian geoservices industry generated $3 billion in revenue in 2011, while accounting for approximately 1.35 lakh jobs.
Though we use maps every day to find a range of information, whether it’s a nearby hospital or a good cup of coffee, there exists a huge industry behind the maps. The contributions it makes to our economy, and the benefits it provides to both consumers and businesses was mapped by Google, which commissioned BCG to tabulate a report.
The report said the impact of the geoservices industry is valued at approximately 15 times its own size. In India, geoservices help Indian businesses drive $40-45 billion in revenue, save $70-75 billion in costs and affect 8-9 million jobs in India.
Ready to pay more
The BCG report also found that Indian consumers are also willing to pay $1.5-2 billion more than they currently do for geospatial services such as online maps, navigation systems and local searches.
Lalitesh Katragadda, Country Head, Google said, “Geoservices helped generate $2 billion in revenue within the Indian accommodation and food services industry alone. Restaurants reported benefiting from new customers finding them through local searches, while users benefit as it makes it easier for them to find the information on local.”
Creating jobs
Geoservices such as the Google Maps APIs have been helping the Indian economy grow by enabling job opportunities. To enable continued growth, governments, companies, researchers and consumers all need to encourage mapping innovations and investments in India, added the country head.
The Indian geoservices industry comprises companies that process the location data, companies that produce geo-enabled software and expert industries that use geospatial data to generate insights.
Beyond the industry itself, a variety of industries in India also use geoservices to make their businesses more efficient and productive. For example, Meru Cabs, India’s largest cab provider and the third largest taxi operator globally. It oversees over 20,000 trips a day across the four massive metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore using geoservices.
Prashant Agrawal, one of the BCG consultants who worked on the report said, “Currently, geoservices represent 0.2 per cent of India’s GDP and affect 2 per cent of the national workforce.”