Often all you need is pluck — and some quick execution — to make an established giant sit up and take notice.
Google has announced it will reduce the prices of Google Maps in India, days after Ola had launched its own Ola Maps. The announcement was made to existing Google Maps customers. Google also said that Google will begin billing its Indian customers in Indian rupees, which is something Ola Maps had provided.
“Hello Google Maps India Platform customer,” Google said in its message. “Starting August 1, 2024, we will introduce new updates, including reduced pricing for our core services to make the Google Maps platform more accessible to developers in India, and we will accept payments in Indian rupees. Google went on to say that the prices for power users of Google Maps could come down by as much as 70 percent after the update.
Google’s move comes days after Ola had launched its own maps solution named Ola Maps. Ola had first announced it had switched from Google Maps to its own homegrown solution named Ola Maps, and said the company would save Rs. 100 crore per year from the move. Days later, Ola had made the Ola Maps platform available on its Krutrim Cloud, and offered offered it for free to customers in the first year. Its prices were also very competitive second year onwards, and it said it would accept payments in Indian Rupees, which Google previously didn’t allow. Ola had proactively encouraged Indian developers to “exit Google Maps” and use its product instead.
It appears that this has made Google sit up and take notice, and it has announced that it will be slashing the prices of its own Maps applications, and also allow billing in Indian rupees. This move alone is a testament to the product that Ola appears to have developed — Google’s developers would’ve undoubtedly gone through Ola Maps after its launch, and concluded that it was good enough for developers to make the switch to its platform. Google has thus announced its own price cuts, and looked to retain customers on Google Maps.
Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal, though, isn’t impressed. “Dear @Google, too little too late! Reducing prices for @googlemaps, “offering to price in ₹” after #ExitGoogleMaps. Don’t need your fake generosity! Tomorrow, I’ll be writing a blog response and announcing major updates on Ola maps @Krutrim. Stay tuned!” he posted on X. It remains to be seen how these Maps price wars pan out, but one thing is for certain — it isn’t every day that Google slashes prices after the launch of a product from a brand-new competitor. And this alone could end up being all the validation — and advertising — Ola Maps might need to get maps developers on its platform.