Dubai: Businesses swear by “first mover” advantage, where getting a product or a service to the marketplace well before anyone else does should be enough to clinch it in their favour. But if you were to ask Slava Petrenko, Vice-President for Operations at 2 GIS, the online mapping and business directory services firm, doing things first can be overstated.
“What we do has been done by others elsewhere both in the UAE and outside — but if you can add depth to the original concept a late entry need not be harmful for prospects,” said Petrenko. “For instance, there’s Google Maps and which has already mapped business addresses — 35,000 or so — in the UAE.
“But what we did was take an extra step or two to create a database of 100,000 businesses and their location details in Dubai. We had teams going to each commercial building and taking down those details.
“It meant a lot of legwork, but we believe that we have a platform that’s secure and a database that is exhaustive and is constantly getting updated.”
The mapping programme that the firm did in Dubai — following a go-ahead from the Municipality — will now be replicated in Sharjah and Ajman, for which it recently won the contract. “Again, the emphasis will be on the extensive detailing,” said Petrenko. “That has to be our USP ... we do not want to leave any room for someone else to come in and attempt that.”
The Sharjah and Ajman work should take up the better part of nine months. Rather than letting third-parties do the information gathering, Petrenko prefers to have everything done in-house. There are 60 people involved in the rather onerous task.
Constant tweaking
In a constantly shifting development landscape as the UAE’s it can be quite a trying job to stay on top of all the changes. With new office towers getting complete, businesses could decide to opt for a new address, which means the 2 GIS directory will need almost constant tweaking.
“We got our people calling in and checking every other month or so — any change that happens will get updated in the shortest possible time,” said Petrenko. “The coverage area also includes the various free zones as well.”
So, where does the money to sustain the business come from? The directory can be accessed free and which excludes the possibility of subscription fees. But 2 GIS takes on advertising and has built up a base of around 100, who pay Dh1,000 a month to feature online. As and when the advertiser base touches 1,000 or so would be the time when the company looks to attain break even.
“Carrying advertisements has just started, and we are pitching the portal as an ideal one for small and mid-sized businesses to create an identity,” said Petrenko. “The expectation is that we should turn profitable by year-end.”
That particular process could be speeded up if the company gets to do mapping in Abu Dhabi and some of the other Gulf markets. The proof of concept of what it has done in Dubai — and repeated in Sharjah and Ajman — should look good on any calling card.
As for taking on new investors or outside funding, Petrenko intends to play it by ear. “The founders put in the financing from start-up phase up to now ... we are in no hurry to bring in new investors,” Petrenko said. “Our business model is working well as it is.”
