Google and Facebook Competing to Buy Waze, for 1$ Billion

Waze, an Israeli Startup with a current bid price of $1 billion, is the focus of current stir between the Google and Facebook for its acquisition. 

For Waze, a country-based mapping, traffic and navigation app with 40 million strong downloads, Google is said to be under negotiation with Waze for acquisition. Developed in 2009 for the smartphones, is currently available on the App Store for the Apple devices and Play Google for he Androids.

Now, news are there in the air that Facebook is also willing to buy this app for its circles of users. A question being asked in the business circles is about the interest of Facebook in Waze. Slash Gear is of the view that with such an app for its consumers, Facebook will have better know-how about the consumers’ likes, check-ins and social circles which may also help in her marketing endeavor. The Israel-based developers of Waze are demanding more than $1 billion as its 11 person team is already in San Francisco for the negotiations.

For the Facebook, it looks sensible as it does not have such map app for its users to compete but for the Silicon Valley titans, Google and Apple, it is questionable attempt. With their own such map apps, the hidden cause seems to be there is a wish to try to eliminate their competitor with the technology which would enhance their maps app with advanced social features.

Waze has made it a simple fun to meet up and coordinate with friends while on the road. Just connect to Facebook to see friends who are also heading to your destination, keep any of your friends updated about your drive, while sending the link to a live map showing your real-time drive and ETA.

The major attraction for the Facebook to buy the Waze is in its future market mix preferences. Being the usual Facebook users, you would, definitely, pull out your smartphone at least for a few times to check up to your social life. In this scenario when you would update your status, you may notice something interesting and the sponsored ads are specific to your gadget-hunting activities of the day. Searches for the detailed maps may become more precise, making ads become more relevant.

Prominent Features of Waze

Among its prominent features, live routing, community-contributed road alerts, complete voice-guided navigation, automatic re-routing with the changes in the road conditions, learns about your frequent destinations, commuting hours, preferred routes, finding the cheapest gas station, finding out the friends driving to the same destination, notifying someone by sending a live ETA, earning points to move up the ranks in your community, live maps, constantly being edited and updated by Waze’s community map editors are important ones. 

Download: Waze social GPS maps & traffic