Elephant vs. Ant = MapmyIndia vs. RouteGuru. Does size matter?

July 12, 2007

By sinha

The Indian Internet world is witnessing a revolution of sorts – startups are challenging the biggies, and are in the process creating their own niche. In our attempt to be true to startups, we are starting a series of posts called: Elephant and the Ant.
What the heck is that?
Well, as is obvious elephant represents the biggies and ants are the cool cool startups. Elephants have all the mighty muscle, but ants’ weapons are it’s killer idea and it’s ability to stay nimble.
Moreover, ants are small, and most of the times don’t come under Elephant’s radar (and that’s why they can even kill the elephant!)

Also, lets not forget that even the word Eleph-ant has an ant – i.e. even the biggies were a startup once upon a time! – so they too know the rules of the game.

In this series, we will take an elephant and an ant – and we will ask you your game plan, if you were the ant whose “Killer” idea has suddenly got leaked out/exposed in the market and the biggie implements that!
What will you do in such a situation? Roll back or fight? If fight, how? Don the “game theory” hat and join the game!

– So here is today’s installment -

Elephant: MapmyIndia
Ant: RouteGuru.
Context: Driving directions based maps.

RouteGuru, a New Delhi based startup has implemented a nifty way to find driving directions – using landmarks (read our review and interview with the founder,Avinash Agrawal).
MapMyIndia, the elephant in this business too has come out with few nifty features and of course, driving directions is one of them.

MapMyIndia’s new avatar is quite an improvement from the earlier version and apart from the regular web 2.0 feature (draggable maps, embedding map code etc), MapmyIndia also has damn good driving directions for almost every nook and corner of the country.

RouteGuru’s advantage lies in the fact that they have “landmark” based approach, while MapmyIndia is not. But I am sure it’s just a matter of time and MapmyIndia will definitely take this route too.

Though MapMyIndia’s execution (so far) isn’t the sexiest, their sheer muscle power (and depth of services in map biz) is good enough to create the buzz.
RouteGuru’s strength (IMHO) lies in being nimble and most importantly, they have the benefit of having a blank canvas and can experiment with new strategies/features (for e.g. user generated content for driving directions?) which a biggie will not attempt to (biggies have an inevitable B cycle – i.e. bureaucracy!)

But at the end of the day what also matters is the speed, depth and breadth of the execution. RouteGuru is present only in NCR region and will need good amount of time (and money/partnerships) to expand into other cities, while MapmyIndia already has brand identity as well as PAN India reach.

If you were a startup, working on a brilliant idea, and suddenly you see a biggie implementing the similar stuff – what will be your reaction?
The sweet side is that your idea has been acknowledged (as a viable business plan), but at the same time it’s no more an innovative idea, no more a differentiator!

What should the ant do?

Forget about the ant, let us know what will you do?

Related: Startup Dilemma: What,when,how to share?

tags: mapmyindia, routeguru, pic credit

Tags: Elephant vs. Ant, Entrepreneurship, Indian Startups, mapmyindia, routeguru, Startup case study

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Sri... on July 12, 2007 at 4:35 pm

Brilliant post

but yet i agree with mighty taking over the startups, but its again always acceptable truth, why would a mighty allow a startup to take over the control, its always the competitive world, its only matter of time fro MAPMYINDIA o take a clue out of it and implement it, but yet we got to start appreciating new things for a change and if its worth it fr a change I would go with it.

Kalyan Manyam on July 12, 2007 at 4:38 pm

Ashish,

Execution matters, Approach matters, Technology matters, Target audience matters, Team matters. No company can be same on all these aspects.

Cant help it if the biggie is just trying to mimic you and not do anything else. Well even in this situ the startup will always have a first mover advantage. So sticking to your ground and continously innovating in all the aspects mentioned above will ensure success..

hehe.. do I sound too optimistic.. well as someone who is running a startup it surely helps

Kalyan Manyam
Indyarocks

D U on July 12, 2007 at 4:45 pm

@ Sri, @Kalyan:
It’s not about two companies being the same..it’s about their offerings too..which might be the same.
What Ashish has talked in this post is the fact that any innovation by a startup can easily be copied by a biggie; and their turnaround time will be lesser too!
ANd I think it’s quite a valid fear startups have to live with…

Kalyan Manyam on July 12, 2007 at 7:30 pm

d u

Companies being same also meant having a similar offering. The point I was trying to make here is that its just NOT one aspect that a company success depends on.. It depends on lot many factors which are not as easy to copy.

I strongly believe a startup doesn’t need to live in fear.. Startups need to be agile and respond to the market forces innovatively and stick to their game confidently for a long time (long enough that the market realizes their presence and responds to their offerings)

If a startup fears someone copying their ONE innovative differentiator.. then I think the startup is flawed and doesn’t deserve to exist. This is my personal opinion and I don’t intend (wish I can) rub it on everyone.

Kalyan
Indyarocks

Avinash on July 13, 2007 at 8:08 am

Here’s from the Ant under discussion..

First of all, a tremendous post, Ashish! It clearly outlines our fears as a startup.

But fears are not real. Our courage to deal with them is!

Coming to competition, I want to convey that we are competing with MapMyIndia (and vice-versa) only in some specific areas.

A ‘part’ of our business model is a ‘part’ of MapMyIndia’s business model. The intersection (both-ways) is thin.

We believe MapMyIndia has a great strategy. And we are happy and proud to have them as a healthy competition in specific areas.

The space has scope for 3-4 good players. And we are banking on MapMyIndia to be the strongest as an opponent player to us. It would not be any fun without them.

Having said that, what will continue to differentiate the courageous ant from the BIG elephant is: continuously innovative and increasingly local strategies. Agility. And of course, sheer pleasure of thought-leadership!

Avinash
(RouteGuru.com)

Piyush on July 13, 2007 at 10:15 am

My first reaction – Amazing approach to a situation & very appropriate example to it. Hats off!

>> Also, lets not forget that even the word Eleph-ant has an ant.

Females do also have males in them (Fe-males) & ‘Fe’ is a symbol of ‘Iron’. If someone start saying they are Iron males(even stronger than males), I don’t know what sense should it be taken in?

>> even the biggies were a startup once upon a time! – so they too know the rules of the game.

Yes only the rules and thats’ the catch. Startups probably come up with an approach of redefining them. So just knowing the rules doesn’t matter much.

>>What will you do in such a situation? Roll back or fight? If fight, how? Don the “game theory” hat and join the game!

Startups have a very tough mental make up and are pretty much aware of it. They cherish such experience & drives them eternal satisfaction. And real tough ones do survive when challenged.

Specifically in case of routeguru and MapMyIndia, please wait and see there’s a huge difference in their offerings and fundamental approach to a problem.

“MapMyIndia is playing Badminton but Routeguru “TENNIS”.

Pavan on July 13, 2007 at 11:05 am

Nice post,

One thing that an elephant cant match with the ant here is the passion for the idea..

Ask a startup, is he passionate about it, you bet he is, its his baby, while in the other hand biggie has to hire people and infuse this passion, which can never match with those who have started it

Pavan
White Money

Pratyush on July 13, 2007 at 5:13 pm

Hi Ashish – great post as usual.

My views are a bit different regarding startups and big companies. I believe that if the essential value prop of a startup is good, it would do better eventually. MIcrosoft and Yahoo were in search before a certain startup called Google came in.

Also addressing a few people above, many startups are built around just features. Good (and potentially successful) companies usually have a fully fleshed out product backed by strong technology or business basics. These are pretty high level descriptions and I am sure dont form attributes to rate startups on – however form good parameters to base observations on.

Rajiv on July 13, 2007 at 5:52 pm

@ Pratyush
At the same time, there were 100 failures before (and after) Google!

Aashish Solanki on July 13, 2007 at 8:44 pm

Excellent Post Ashish!

As always you have pin-pointed and outlined a reflection of Start-Ups & the Biggies effectively

‘I have had my fears, I have had my dreams. But I have conquered my fears because of my dreams!’

Every start-up surely lives by that.As Avinash said there is space of 3-4 players and a healthy competition will always bring out the best for the user.

Start-Ups are high on innovation & energy where as the Biggies have the resources and skill-pool(ok not always) to sometimes match with the other ants.

Start Up perspective questions one must ask:
1. How do I innovate and add agility with the limited resources?

2. Do I succumb to the BIGGIE players and either sell/quit/exit?

3. Am I changing my Game-Plan according to the market or according to the competitor?

4. What do I trade-off for what?
Users Vs Features Vs Revenue Vs Market Share?

Biggies perspective questions one must ask:
1. How are we surviving today? (Is it the user base or quality of service.. some may argue both are related but sometimes not.Just beacause you first in that space you can be the leader but not the innovator)

2. How fast are we than the nearest competition?

3. Can we find 10 different ways of doing the same thing which we have already done? (then we are on the right track!)

4. Do I buy-out a smaller start-up, fund few guys or hire them to work for us? (Killing Competition indirectly)

Please correct me where ever. But these were my views. I still feel there are huge spaces empty and some domains overly crowded. It is the market that matters the most. And at times both have to exist: the ant & the elephant!

Weekly Buzz in the Indian Internet world [July 7th to July 14th] | pluggd.in on July 24, 2007 at 2:25 pm

[...] Elephant vs. Ant = MapmyIndia vs. RouteGuru. Does size matter? [...]

Rahul on August 9, 2009 at 8:51 pm

there is also another player called gogoindia….there website http://www.gogoindia.in
called their customer service..they said now they cover 400+ cities and comes with one year warranty…whats cool is that it has in built hands free Bluetooth calling with FM transmitter…so you can direct phone calls or driving directions to the car speakers..without any wires or anything… which i thought was pretty nice…the market is really hotting up…there are more choice now in the market for gps navigation india…two years back when i moved to india from UK…there was hardly any player…it just shows india is moving to next level in all directions…