One of the most anticipated and most hollow panels at GeoWeb conferences of late is “Something Something Business Model”. I think the reality was best captured by the Fake Steve Coast:

The default business model of Web 2.0 has been advertising. The problem is you are largely limited to placing advertisements around maps and you can’t leverage the local or geographic content on the map to target with. So, you have to generate a massive amount of traffic to make enough money with your ads around maps. Which is difficult, since most of the clicking is on the map and you don’t get loads of page views to push ads against.

The dirty secret - it is even tough for the big guys (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft) to generate big revenue with their mapping applications. The mapping applications are largely loss leaders. The scary bit is they are loss leaders and GYM control the ad inventory. Meaning they actually have a network of advertisers willing to pay to have their content shown in conjunction with their maps. This is no small feat and I would love to hear how folks like Lat 49 are fairing in their endeavors to build an ad network for maps.

Even if we do finally get advertisements on maps and a version of Adsense to go with it - are you likely or unlikely to be able to pay the bills with it? Not to say it is impossible.

Platial has stated in the past it is generating revenue (possibly even cash flow positive) and has the level of traffic (15MM unique users per month) to support an ad based business. Although where does it go (acquisition, IPO, Kleiner et al want their money back eventually)? How many other GeoWeb companies out there are able to support themselves on advertising?

What are the other alternatives? Maybe we can start with how folks pay for geo applications and content today:

GIS - I pay for licensed desktop software (sometimes a client server deployment)
Google Earth - I pay for the pro version that has extra functionality
API’s - I pay for geo type API’s when they are not used on the public web
Integrators - I’ll pay you to build a geo type mash up (sometime you have your own product to make this easier)
Data - I pay you for proprietary data that I can use in my geo application
Subscription - I pay to use your service on a recurring basis
Market places - I pay for third party content through your website and you get a cut
Buying devices - I pay for a GPS or other mapping enabled piece of hardware.

I’d argue that the majority of GeoWeb companies that are making money are doing so with one of the business models listed above. Further, I’d argue that of those most of them are doing so as integrators. Paying for licensed GIS software is the most real of the models generating over a billion in revenue, but it is not really GeoWeb outside of people paying to license Google Earth.

Selling geospatial data is another real business generating around $660 million. The companies selling this data are rarely GeoWeb companies unless you count NAVTEQ and TeleAtlas. In the data old guard the business model to sell their geospatial data is often a hot topic.

Selling API’s is a very GeoWeb method of doing business, but with the abundance of available free API’s how many people are actually paying for them? While subscription services have been big winners in other Web 2.0 spaces (Basecamp, Salesforce etc.) I can’t think of a successful geospatial subscription service (help me there must be one…).

For market places, WeoGeo has been successful in getting content providers to make their data available for sale through their service. It will be interesting to see how it scales and if a market develops, but it is one of the few GeoWeb areas where there has been business model innovation.

Interestingly, there are a myriad of business model options but nothing I’ve seen to date really pops out as a clear cut winner. Whether you are a start up or one of the big incumbents figuring out how to monetize the GeoWeb, it is going to continue to be a bur in the saddle (aka pain in the ass)…

Popularity: 19% [?]

Cuba has been in the spotlight lately as Raúl Castro officially takes over as President ending the 49 year rule of his brother Fidel Castro. What will be the legacy of Fidel Castro and the socialist revolution that he led since 1959? One of the most acclaimed successes for the Cuban government has been its progress in health and health care, particularly in the rural areas in the eastern part of the island. Whether or not health care in Cuba is what the government claims it to be is strongly debated. See for yourself the state of health and health care in Cuba using Finder!.

The Cuban government provides in depth statistics on the health of its population by province and finder has these data available for the years 1996 to 2006 with more than 80 health and health care related attributes. Whether you are interested in the change in infant mortality over the last decade, which provinces have more doctors per resident, or what is the leading cause of death in each province, this dataset will help illustrate what the situation is on the island.

Here is an example of what these data can be used for. This map shows the number of family doctors per habitant in 2006. Provinces in red have less doctors and the green ones have more.

See data for:
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996

Popularity: 18% [?]

Over two weeks have passed since the 7.9 magnitude earthquake devastated Chengdu, China. The end of this tragedy is still hiding as aftershocks continue to ripple throughout the country. News feeds continue to stream from China as the recovery process continues. The most recent reports have the death toll climbing to 50,000.

The USGS keeps daily records of recorded earthquakes worldwide, and enables us to pinpoint earthquake locations by providing latitude and longitude coordinates. Within Finder we have made this data available for use in shape, kml, and CSV formats to the public.

The following Datasets can be found on Finder, and can be used to gain a spatial perspective on the current events in China.

USGS, M 1+ Earthquakes, World, 5.5.08 through 5.12.08
USGS, M 1+ earthquakes, World, 5.12.08 through 5.19.08
USGS, M 1+ earthquakes, World, 5.20.08 through 5.27.08
USGS, Earthquake Records, World, 1998-2007

Popularity: 21% [?]