Demand for location-based services is attracting more firms - including foreign venture capitalists - to stake their claim
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.
