Building a purely Vietnamese digital map platform to contribute to protecting national sovereignty in cyberspace; soon becoming a technology “unicorn”; supporting other countries to proactively transform digitally… are the great aspirations of IOTLink.
The arduous journey of building the first purely Vietnamese digital map platform
The idea of researching and developing a digital map platform to contribute to protecting national sovereignty in cyberspace appeared in the mind of Mr. Do Quang Vinh, Chairman of the Board of Members and General Director of IOTLink Limited Liability Company, more than a decade ago, when very few people mentioned the concept of digital maps.
The journey of turning an idea into reality for a digital platform startup is fraught with difficulties, takes a long time, and has a high risk of failure.
IOTLink leaders repeatedly called for investment and worked with a number of foreign experts without achieving the desired results. The digital map platform system had to be demolished and rebuilt many times. There was a team that developed the system that was 100% replaced, without retaining any members.
In 2017, IOTLink's board of directors welcomed Mr. Vu Minh Tri, former General Director of Microsoft Vietnam. This presence became a "bridge" for IOTLink to attract more "quality" personnel.
The Research and Development (R&D) Center was quickly established with about 50 people, including PhDs, masters, and high-tech engineers - the dream of many other technology companies. The initial R&D investment accounted for 80 - 90% of the company's operating budget.
Just about a year later, the Map4D digital map platform was technologically complete. The next task – building the database – continued to require a lot of time and effort.
Mr. Bui Duc Hau, Deputy General Director of IOTLink.
“We had to “knock on the door” of state management agencies such as the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, etc. to seek support. If the authorities provide good support in terms of database, we will create many utilities for users. After a series of pilot integration activities, the number of state agencies and businesses using Map4D began to increase gradually,” Mr. Bui Duc Hau, Deputy General Director of IOTLink recalled.
In 2020, Map4D was officially launched and quickly won Second Prize in the National Digital Transformation Solution Search Competition - Viet Solutions.
In November 2020, the Ministry of Information and Communications held a ceremony to launch Map4D, the first purely Vietnamese digital map platform in Vietnam, researched and developed by a team of Vietnamese engineers, with storage infrastructure located entirely in Vietnam, ensuring high security and national security, and being able to meet many needs related to digital transformation, smart cities, etc.
In 2021, Map4D achieved Top 3 outstanding digital platforms in the "Make in Vietnam" Digital Technology Product Award organized by the Ministry of Information and Communications.
Doing business in a field that almost no one has done in Vietnam, IOTLink is on a "blue ocean" with not many competitors, but the difficulty is that not many people have a clear picture of a purely Vietnamese digital map platform.
“When going to government agencies to introduce Map4D, many people who are familiar with foreign platforms, but are not technical, do not understand clearly why they have to use Map4D while existing applications using foreign digital maps are still “running” well. Some businesses are using foreign platforms, although they also like Map4D because the price is cheaper, but hesitate to decide to change technology because they are afraid of risks affecting customers and revenue. It took us a whole year to convince some businesses, we had to do a lot of work, including programming to help their apps support users best. Finding the first case study (typical customer case) that is large enough and influential enough is a difficult problem for us,” the hardships of the early days are still clear in Mr. Hau’s mind.
Contribute to protecting national sovereignty in cyberspace and many other benefits
Committed to a "100% Vietnamese digital platform", IOTLink firmly refuses to call for foreign investment capital, even though it knows that foreign investors are willing to spend money to quickly and strongly operate the Map4D digital map system.
In recent years, IOTLink has focused on conquering the domestic market, aiming at the goal of Vietnamese government agencies, businesses and people all using Vietnam's digital map platform. Because if using digital platforms from foreign suppliers, it will be difficult to protect users' personal data. In particular, for government agencies, when putting applications on land management, construction planning, etc. on "foreign" digital platforms, public data and data of a national nature will be difficult to ensure information security.
“Many agencies, organizations, and businesses, when using online tools, do not pay attention to national sovereignty in cyberspace. While this issue is extremely important. Just a little carelessness can lead to quite serious and unforeseen consequences. The case of a Vietnamese fashion brand posting a map violating sovereignty on its media channel last April, which was boycotted by the community, is proof. There are also businesses that are aware of the importance of the sovereignty issue, but are confused about which digital platform to choose to ensure authenticity, safety, and avoid being “hit by a bad star on the internet”. The digital map platform Map4D is the answer they need,” Mr. Hau continued the story.
Currently, the Map4D platform system has thousands of user accounts from government agencies and businesses. They do not need to do additional programming, just integrate Map4D into their solutions and applications to be able to use digital maps immediately.
The Map4D platform system has thousands of user accounts from government agencies and businesses.
For organizations and businesses in the logistics and transportation service industry such as Grab, Be, Ahamove, and Taxi Xanh, digital maps are an indispensable input material. Mai Linh and Ahamove are the first two customers to use Map4D. Later, even the online vehicle dispatching technology platform EMDDI - specializing in connecting applications for traditional taxi companies - is also using IOTLink's pure Vietnamese digital map platform.
Mr. Nguyen Canh Thuc, Chief Technology Officer of Ahamove said: “Delivery address is one of the important issues for Ahamove. We are using Map4D's solution to help customers find the most accurate address on Ahamove's platform. Through testing and using many map data solutions, we find that Map4D has competitive prices compared to foreign suppliers, the data quality and quantity are very rich, the operating system is stable, and the latency is low. IOTLink's solution is very reliable and worth using.”
Organizations and businesses that only try Map4D or use Map4D to program/test products/applications are still free. Only when they actually launch to the market and have a number of users generating revenue will they have to pay a service fee for IOTLink's digital map platform.
“Using foreign map platforms requires high fees, and the results are often inaccurate. Map4D, which costs much less, will help businesses reduce service costs, have more funds to increase promotions for customers, thereby increasing competitiveness in the market. Depending on the API (application programming interface), the cost of using Map4D can be only 40% of the cost of using Google Map. On the other hand, using digital map platform accounts of foreign suppliers, allowing tax money to “flow” to other countries, will cause Vietnam to lose a significant source of budget revenue,” Mr. Hau added.
Wish every Vietnamese person uses Map4D
“The number of people who know and use Map4D is still not much even though we offer free use to individual customers. Almost all smartphones have foreign digital map applications installed, typically Google Map. If all Vietnamese people use the Map4D platform, it will better promote the value of the purely Vietnamese digital map platform, while bringing more added value and benefits to the Vietnamese people themselves,” the Deputy General Director of IOTLink frankly shared.
The user's question: "I already have Google Map to meet my daily needs, why do I have to download Map4D?" is the concern of IOTLink leaders.
In order to increase the number of people who know about Map4D, IOTLink has deployed many solutions such as promoting on the website, portal, fanpage and many other communication activities.
The nature of digital platforms is invisible. There needs to be good, practical, effective applications running on digital map platforms as convincing proof to users.
“We have researched and developed a number of applications such as 2D, 3D, 4D experience for finding directions, directions... The database and technology compared to Google are also about 70 - 80%. In 2024 and beyond, we will focus on upgrading applications to better serve people, increase user experience, add practical functions for users such as speed warnings, traffic signs (currently Google Map does not have a traffic sign feature)... Imagine one day, when using Map4D, just select the departure and destination points, add the operation of booking a parking space at the destination..., the system will clearly indicate which way to go, how fast, which parking lot to park in... Of course, there are many other benefits", Mr. Hau happily revealed.
New technologies such as AI (artificial intelligence) are being invested in by IOTLink to meet the increasingly complex personalization needs of users of applications integrated on Map4D, for example, wanting to move from point A to point B not only by car, motorbike but also by train and bus.
Many specialized applications integrating Map4D are being researched and deployed by IOTLink.
For organizations, businesses, and government agencies, many applications related to the fields of tourism, transportation, construction, land, etc. have also been researched and deployed by the IOTLink team. Some of the application solutions that have been effective in practice include: Passive telecommunications management solution for the information and communications industry; Technical infrastructure management solution applied to urban management; Virtual assistant for tourists at tourist attractions, etc.
With IOTLink, the Ministry of Information and Communications' recognition of Map4D as being on the list of platforms serving national digital transformation is not the final destination, but the next step is the desire for Map4D to be on the list of national digital platforms so that ministries/departments/sectors/sectors can proactively share data.
IOTLink leaders boldly proposed that state management agencies study and combine a number of systems such as the VneID electronic identification application, Land plot/lot management data management, Physical address data management, etc., to form a more official, complete, and accurate database, allowing IOTLink to exploit and use it to increase the efficiency of Map4D.
Recently, IOTLink cooperated with Vietnam Post Corporation to build a national digital address platform. The Map4D digital map platform combined with the national digital address platform with 100% accuracy will become a superior advantage compared to any foreign digital map platform.
Strange concept when reaching out to foreign markets
Along with the effort to realize the aspiration to affirm the country's sovereignty and stand firm in the Vietnamese market, more and more people, businesses and state agencies are using purely Vietnamese digital platforms. IOTLink leaders are aiming for another big dream: Reaching out to the international market.
IOTLink is nurturing the aspiration of bringing a purely Vietnamese digital map platform to the international market.
Digital platforms often have their own colors, even irreplaceable colors. Map4D's own colors are 3D, 4D, helping users easily visualize the objects displayed on the application.
“Know yourself and know your enemy”, IOTLink clearly identifies that it is difficult for them to reach the market share of multinational corporations. For example, Grab is a corporation operating under an international mechanism, cannot use Vietnam’s digital map platform for the markets of Laos, Cambodia…, so they will be forced to use foreign platforms such as Google Map.
According to Deputy General Director Bui Duc Hau, IOTLink's international business approach will be different from corporations like Google: "They provide services worldwide, using only one platform for the whole world. Our concept (model) is to create a platform to serve each country. Looking at developing or underdeveloped countries, many countries do not have their own map platform and are still struggling with this. Each country has its own characteristics. We plan to transfer digital platform technology, so that they can build their own national digital map platform, master their data and protect their national sovereignty in cyberspace, and be more proactive in digital transformation."
Cooperating with Viettel is one of the solutions that IOTLink is considering to bring the purely Vietnamese digital map platform Map4D to many other countries. Viettel not only has many advantages in terms of reputation, market, and network coverage, which has helped IOTLink expand its domestic customer base in recent times, but is also growing impressively in many "foreign" markets.
“After developing stably in the domestic market, we will confidently expand to the world. This is also a way for us to soon realize the goal of becoming a technology “unicorn”, a task that Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung emphasized in a meeting that must be done at all costs”, Deputy General Director Bui Duc Hau envisioned IOTLink by 2030.
Vietnamnet.vn
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