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With the rise of mobile technology in the geospatial industry, we thought it was time to conduct an advanced analysis of our user data and behaviour of thousands of members of the geospatial community, with a special focus on mobile mapping. Over 450,000 geomatics professionals visited our websites in 2017, which puts us in a unique position to analyse their behaviour and provide an overview of the rise of mobile mapping technology.
This blog is a summary of the full report, which can be read here.
Analysing our database
Mobile mapping technology is an important section of Geo-matching, our product platform for surveying, positioning and machine guidance. An analysis of the user behaviour on Geo-matching shows a very interesting trend since September 2017, with almost double as much traffic in Mobile Mapping pages. We even saw a record number of 3,300 pageviews in June 2018!
Views of Mobile Mapping pages on Geo-matching.com
An important sign of the growing mobile mapping industry can also be seen in the enquiries on Geo-matching, ranging from major organisations like NASA to small surveying companies worldwide. An increase of 250% was seen in 2017, with 132 enquiries in 2017, relative to 36 in 2015 and 52 in 2016. On top of that, the number of mobile mapping systems on Geo-matching has grown with a stunning 325% in last three years.
Another interesting fact came from our latest GIM International readers’ survey, with 67% of the respondents indicating to plan on investing in new systems in 2018. 20% of those respondents plan to invest in mobile mapping systems and/or portable and indoor mobile mapping systems.
Findings from GIM International Readers’ Survey 2017
Regional and search trends
Mobile mapping is a technology that is used worldwide, but when analysing the geographical location of our users, we see a clear trend in the Asia-Pacific region with almost 50% of all users coming from that region! Other market research supports this trend by stating that increased investment to develop infrastructure in this region will boost the demand for mobile mapping technology.
Regional distribution of Geo-matching users looking for mobile mappers
We also did some research outside of our own data, to check our findings. Using Google Keywords Planning, we found a strong increase in the search volume for mobile mappers and related terms too. Average searches for these terms have grown from 7,000 in 2014, to 9,000 in 2016 and currently to 14,000 searches per month!
Google search volume for ‘mobile mappers’ and related terms. NB: The peak in February 2018 is due to a National Geographic article about a Lidar survey of ancient Maya structures in Guatemala.
