Maps.me (styled as MAPS.ME) is a mobile app for

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

and

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...

that provides offline maps using

OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free, open geographic database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveys, trace from aerial imagery and also import from other freely licensed g ...

data. It was formerly known as MapsWithMe. In November 2014, it was acquired by

Mail.Ru Group VK, known as Mail.ru Group until 12 October 2021, is a Russian technology company. It started in 1998 as an e-mail service and went on to become a major corporate figure in the Runet, Russian-speaking segment of the Internet. VK operates an e-m ...

and became part of its

My.com My.com is an international subsidiary of VK that offers Internet-related services and products. My.com is working under brands and services myMail, myChat and Maps.Me. My.com is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with a U.S. office locat ...

brand. In September 2015, the app was

open sourced Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open ...

and a

free and open-source software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

version was additionally made available on F-droid until the application was sold to the payment processor Daegu Limited, part of Parity.com, which changed the application

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

and content, which led the free software community to develop an ad- and tracker-free fork called '

Organic Maps Organic Maps is a free and open-source offline mobile map and navigation app for Android & iOS. It is based on top of crowd-sourced OpenStreetMap data. The app is privacy-focused and has 0 trackers in it. It is a Fork (software development), fork ...

' in response.

History

First, the whole team has developed an application in

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. Maps.me was founded by

Yury Melnichek Yury Melnichek ( be, Юрый Мельнічак, russian: link=no, Юрий Мельничек) a Swiss-Belarusian tech-entrepreneur, venture investor and software engineer. Born in Minsk (Belarus), now living in Zurich (Switzerland). Founder of ...

, Alexander Borsuk, Viktor Govako and Siarhei Rachytski. Under the leadership of Alexander, MapsWithMe got its first 2.5M users worldwide. Yury Melnichek was leading the project from November 2013 until April 2016 when Evgeny Lisovskiy took over. In early 2017 the philosophy of the app changed, leading it to be supported by adverts. On Nov 2020 Mail.ru Group sold Maps.me to the payment processor Daegu Limited, part of Parity.com, which changed the application

and content, which led the free software community to develop Organic Maps in response.

MapsWithMe GmbH

The application was initially developed by Zurich-based MapsWithMe GmbH with a development office in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

. In 2012, MapsWithMe came in first in the

Startup Monthly A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend ...

competition in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

. The team won a nine-week traineeship in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

as a prize.

Mail.ru Group

In November 2014, Maps.me was acquired by

for 542 million rubles (around US$14 million at that time) to be integrated with

, and the app was made free of charge. The engineering team was relocated to the Mail.Ru Group office in Moscow to continue working on the project. In 2019, its revenue amounted to 159 million rubles (US$2.5 million) with an EBITDA loss of 25 million rubles (US$0.39 million).

Daegu Ltd and partners

On November 2 2020, Daegu Limited bought Maps.me for 1.56 Billion Russian rubles (some US$20 million at 2020's exchange rate). Daegu Limited is announced to be part of Parity.com Group. Regarding the question, who is really responsible, there are two main groups involved. The first is Parity.com AG, which is part of Convexity Holdings AG from Switzerland. The second is the global TMF Group, a partner of Parity.com Group, which has a dependence office in Cyprus. Regarding the App Stores from Android and Apple, there is Maps.Me (Cyprus) Limited and Stolmo Limited. Regarding the policy of maps.me both fit to the responsibility to TMF Group in the same office in Nicosia. According to the search engines there is still no visible proof of what Daegu Limited is and if Parity.com AG is the same as Parity.com Group. In summary there are currently five companies involved: Daegu Ltd, Parity.com AG/Group, TMF Group, Stolmo Ltd, Maps.me (Cyprus) Ltd.

References

External links