Newsletter
Google’s Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai implied that Google Maps will be monetized with advertising solutions in the future. While answering a question asked by an industry analyst during the firm’s Q1 2017 earnings call on Thursday, Pichai said that the Mountain View-based tech giant has a “long-term” plan for its mapping solution, adding that the company consciously made the decision to focus on improving the functionality of Google Maps instead of committing more resources to monetizing the app. However, that strategy will likely change at some point in the future, with Pichai saying that Google is looking to position maps as “an integral” component of every smartphone, after which the Alphabet-owned firm will be looking to do a better job of monetizing its mobile solution.
While Google’s CEO didn’t provide specific details regarding the company’s long-term plan for monetizing Google Maps, the firm’s top executive did say that recent additions to the app aimed at providing activity suggestions are a sign of things to come, implying that the Mountain View-based Internet company will eventually be looking to sell more promotional space within its mobile mapping tool. However, the actual monetization of those features won’t be introduced in the immediate future seeing how Pichai said that Google is still in the process of gathering feedback from users regarding the suggestions offered by Maps.
Pichai’s comments suggest that Google intends to stick with its long-term advertising strategy that aims to sell and deliver ads that are useful to both marketers and end users. An implementation of an ad platform into Google Maps could potentially bring the company’s targeted advertising solutions to a new level and possibly create an advertising ecosystem of its own. Regardless, it seems that Google is still adamant to do things slowly and will continue improving the Google Maps user experience in the coming months before it shifts its focus on monetizing it. Some industry analysts believe that the company’s mobile mapping tool could become one of its major revenue generators in the future and while it remains to be seen whether these predictions hold true, more details on the matter will likely be available shortly.