Waze Case Study Personal Use Ebook

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The app has a feature for locating where the police are. There is growing criticism that this could hinder the ability of the police to get their jobs done. It could allow criminals access to this data that would not be available without the service. Google’s position is that knowing where the police are located promotes safe driving. There is no indication of any further developments on this issue.

Several years ago, the major mobile data providers (Verizon, AT&T) switched to limited service plans. For apps that rely on data to be free flowing with unlimited plans, this could limit use by customers. The industry has since reintroduced unlimited plans, albeit at a higher cost.

Some towns are complaining that GPS-based programs are turning tiny streets into traffic nightmares. The apps often redirect traffic to these tiny streets, and when people follow the advice, it creates a traffic surge for these streets.

[Source: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Waze-Google-Maps-San-Francisco-reroute-12898001.php]

Los Angeles is considering taking legal action against Waze for redirecting Wazers to residential streets. [Source: http://www.govtech.com/fs/LA-Considers-Legal-Action-to-Stop-Waze-from-Routing-Commuters-Through-Neighborhoods.html]

Why it Works

Users who want real-time traffic data can download the Waze app for free. They can also participate by submitting data in real-time about gas prices and traffic info. Waze users can also find the lowest gas prices, again with the help of other users in the network. These other users submit gas prices when they observe them. Waze has formed several partnerships with companies who want access to the network.

When people find the best routes where they aren’t stuck in traffic, in a small way, they are helping the environment. When you multiply that by the number of users who use the app to avoid traffic jams, that savings can be significant. The savings on money from not being stuck in traffic is an easy sell, too.

Waze has expanded its data by partnering with many governments. Both entities (Waze and Governments) benefit by provided each other with traffic data, road closures, updates, etc.

The company has been test-marketing a carpooling feature of its app. The aim of this initiative is to reduce the amount of traffic by getting people to hook up in real time. It’s an answer to the problem of differing schedules for regular carpoolers. The company hopes to use this initiative to eventually change the patterns of buying cars in the future. It feels that it should prompt people to not need cars as much. That is an aggressive goal and one that requires changing people’s perceptions about the need for having a car. However, this initiative could save people money on parking, which is huge and could be a selling point.

[Source: https://soundcloud.com/cbinsights/a-conversation-with-noam-bardin-founder-of-waze]

The overhead for the company is quite low. It uses crowdsourcing for data acquisition, which means little-to-no costs. The biggest costs are the network and app development and maintenance.

Promotion:

The company, being a subsidiary of Google, has the power of its vast network to generate interest.

The company partners with businesses who want to take advantage of location-based data. Waze receives advertising revenues from these partners. As an example, when a driver is low on gas, the app can display a logo of a partnering gas station. It pops up on the screen with the location. This is useful to the advertiser and the driver. Other vendors can take advantage of this location-based and user-preferential data.

[Source: https://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/waze-app-google-mobile-advertising-data-privacy-protection-gdpr]

The data about buying habits and other information is sold to third parties. It’s not clear what the impact of the new EU GDPR laws will have on this aspect of the business model.

[Source: https://www.kefron.com/blog/consent-right-forgotten-will-gdpr-affect-data-capture/]

PCMag.com released a tips article that helps Wazers use the app better. This can only help Waze since people who start using the tips will find that it has more uses than they realized. These Wazers will then recommend the app to friends.

[Source: https://www.pcmag.com/feature/343818/11-tips-to-help-you-find-your-waze/8]

Features:

CNet.com did a review in 2014 for the Waze app. The reviewer gave a high score of 8.3-stars out of 10, which is considered good. The reviewer liked the concept of having accurate traffic data and cited that as the main advantage of the app. The reviewer did not like the interface for the app and stated that it was not intuitive. On Glassdoor, employees rated the company 4.2-stars out of 5. This is a decent rating. The employees also gave the company 100% for recommending the company to friends, which is a perfect rating. There is no data available on the rating of the CEO at the time of this writing.