DeCarta MapSearch gets 1M unique mobile users in 2 weeks

By Giselle Tsirulnik

April 8, 2011

The deCarta MapSearch mobile application has seen 1 million unique mobile users in less than two weeks since its March 22 launch.

DeCarta provides integrated maps, local search and directions across a wide variety of handset platforms and countries. The app is currently available in 14 countries.

Mobile Marketer’s Giselle Tsirulnik interviewed Don Weigel, vice president of marketing at deCarta, San Jose, CA. Here is what he had to say:

How have you been promoting the app? Mobile ads?
At the moment, we are in soft launch.  

The app is promoted only through its appearance on the Opera Mini speed dial screen in 14 countries.  

There is currently no advertising to drive traffic to the app, so all the traffic so far is organic.

We will be launching campaigns to drive traffic to the app in the near future, and expanding to another 50 countries.

What makes the app unique?
MapSearch is a white label alternative to the Google and Bing maps duopoly, which opens up the value chain to advertisers and distribution channels.  

Our customers can brand it any way they want, insert their own advertising into the search results and on the map, control the user experience and the value chain.  
Location-based advertising drives significantly higher eCPMs and Google and Bing are intent upon taking the lion’s share of that added value.  

DeCarta provides a solution to publishers, handset OEMs, network operators, ad networks and advertisers to reap the benefits of location-based ads.

Can you describe how it works?
The MapSearch Engine indexes rich geo-content including restaurants, hotels, retail locations, and points of interest, even products, and makes them searchable.  

Users can view listings, reviews, click to call and get directions.  

More features are coming soon, including local-social.

What platforms is it available on?
The initial launch is on the Opera Mini mobile browser and runs on any phone that supports Opera Mini, which includes a huge range of phones and tablets.  

Other versions soon to be released include: HTML5 which runs on any browser that supports the spec: Android, iPhone and BlackBerry.

Is the app ad supported? If so what a type of ad opportunities does it offer brands?
Yes. There are several ad opportunities.  

On the Opera platform deCarta MapSearch is integrated with the AdMarvel platform, which enables us to run campaigns with any AdMarvel partner network or direct advertiser.  

Alternatively, any brand, network, OEM, operator and local media company can use deCarta MapSearch as their own “Maps” application, and integrate their own advertising without being subject to the Google or Microsoft terms of service.

Here are some screen shots of the application