According to Forbes, MapMyIndia sent an intellectual property legal notice to Bhavish Aggarwal's Ola for copying its data to create Ola Maps.
Ola Maps is the in-house map for navigation and location for the ride-hailing company. MapMyIndia’s parent company is CE Info Systems.
The claim is that Ola Electric violated a 2021 license agreement. In 2022, Ola onboarded MapMyIndia to provide navigation services for its S1 Pro electric scooter. According to MapMyIndia, Ola was prohibited from doing so. However, Ola used the data against MapMyIndia to launch its independent Map.
Ola Maps was launched in July after Ola exited Microsoft's Azure and Google Maps. This decision came after Microsoft-owned LinkedIn removed Ola founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal's post. Bhavish Aggarwal lashed at Google and stated that transitioning to Ola Maps reduced Ola's expenses to zero from ₹100 crore when using Google Maps.
To push back, Aggarwal announced free Ola Maps access and Rs 100 Cr credit for Indian developers. In response, Google Maps announced a 70% price cut. Aggarwal lashed out at Google and said it was too little and too late.
“After Azure exit last month, we’ve now fully exited Google Maps. We used to spend Rs 100 crore a year, but we’ve made that 0 this month by moving completely to our in-house Ola Maps,” Aggarwal posted on X.
Ola Electric, about to launch its ₹5,500 crore IPO on August 2, had signed an agreement with MapMyIndia's parent company for using its data, in June 2021.
Social Media Reaction:
Online users are trolling CEO Aggarwal for the allegations.
One user wrote, "Now he can't even play his favourite nationalism card"
Another user commented, "Ola stole it from MapmyIndia, MapmyIndia stole it from Google Maps !"
A third user replied, "Oh spicy !! … thats the beef we need … Pseudo nationalism of bhavish needs to be showcased to the world. BC ek product nahi banaya dhang ka, baate karwa lo is se duniya bhar ki bus."
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