More Than 16% of Web Users View Maps and Driving Directions
13 May 1999
More Than 16% of Web Users View Maps and Driving Directions Generated By MapQuest.com, According to Media Metrix MapQuest.com Delivers 100 Million Maps in April Through its Own Web Site
And Those of its Customers
NEW YORK, May 13 -- MapQuest.com , a leader in
advanced mapping systems, announced today that, according to a March 1999
Media Metrix custom report, over 10 million unique Web visitors viewed its
maps and driving directions on the MapQuest.com site or through its customers'
sites. This translates to a 16.7% reach of the entire Internet population.
MapQuest.com and its clients drew over 100 million maps and delivered more
than 20 million driving directions to its worldwide users in the month of
April. To put this in perspective, the International Mapping Trade
Association (IMTA) indicated that approximately 96 million printed maps were
sold during the entire year of 1998.
A separate study conducted by NFO Interactive in January of 1999 indicated
that 70% of the Web users surveyed found online maps and driving directions
provided more value than their offline counterparts. This finding is
consistent with a recent MapQuest.com user study, in which 49% of those
surveyed cited MapQuest.com as their primary source of local maps, with 67%
using MapQuest.com as their primary source of non-local maps(1).
"We're reaching a record number of Internet users, through both our own
site and those of our partners," said Mike Mulligan, president and CEO of
MapQuest.com. "As we continue to expand our presence on the Web, we expect
more consumers will look to us for their travel needs and more businesses will
turn to us to drive foot traffic to their brick and mortar locations."
MapQuest.com reaches millions of users by delivering maps and directions
through its consumer Web site http://www.mapquest.com and by offering web-based
solutions for businesses, who have the maps and directions hosted either on
MapQuest.com servers or on their own servers.
Since 1996, MapQuest.com has developed a diverse network of more than
500 business partners, including Yahoo!, Lycos, Infoseek, Excite, CitySearch ,
Travelocity, Kinko's, Blockbuster, Dayton Hudson and Storage USA. Most
recently, MapQuest.com and AOL's Digital City signed a partnership agreement
to create a co-branded local channel that will be accessible through the
MapQuest.com home page. The new local channel will be programmed exclusively
by Digital City and will feature the local content from all 60 Digital City
sites. As part of the agreement, Digital City will also add MapQuest.com maps
to the Digital City Web site.
About MapQuest.com
MapQuest.com (http://www.mapquest.com) is a leader in advanced mapping systems.
The Company launched its popular web site on February 5, 1996. Today,
MapQuest.com is receiving more than 3.1 million unique visitors monthly(2) to
its consumer web site. As part of their business-to-business services,
MapQuest.com helps business integrate maps and driving directions into their
Internet, Intranet and call center applications for improved marketing and
customer service functions.
In addition to web-enabled mapping services, MapQuest.com also provides
high-quality printed maps to leading brands of reference books, travel guides
and textbooks. It also provides the underlying mapping and driving direction
technology and components to a variety of vertical industries, such as
corporate travel, hotels, real estate and retailers.
MapQuest.com is listed on the Nasdaq; the ticker symbol is MQST. The
Company has been in operation since 1967.
1 Random survey of 2,565 MapQuest.com visitors
2 Media Metrix, March 1999
