At any given moment along the mainland's estimated 2 million kilometres of roads, 100 trucks equipped with GPS tracking and transmission equipment are beaming data about one-way streets, stop lights and landmark buildings to digital map-making firm Beijing Lingtu Software.
The company of 640 employees was founded in 1999 during a government push to encourage private investment in the country's underdeveloped cartographic industry.
Lingtu's efforts to map China's burgeoning road and infrastructure development are a work in progress. But the demand for digital maps and the location-based services they enable has attracted more companies - including foreign venture capitalists - to stake their claim in a market finally living up to its potential, thanks to the proliferation of mobile phones and China's 110 million internet users.
Last week, Lingtu announced it had received US$30 million in a third round of venture capital funding from a group of companies led by Gobi Partners. This follows the US$11.78 million purchase of Go2Map by mainland internet portal Sohu.com in April last year.
Lingtu's investors are hoping this latest round of funding will be the last before an initial public offering, having secured previous funding from Gobi and Japan's NTT DoCoMo.
