Google Maps is probably Alphabet's (GOOG) -) most successful innovation outside of its ubiquitous search engine.
The interactive digital mapping service has a nearly 70% market share, according to 6sense. Google Maps closest competitor, Apple Maps, only has a 10% market share and is seen as the buggier, less intuitive version of its counterpart at Google.
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However, a new competitor backed by some of the biggest names in tech is stepping on the scene, launching its first product Wednesday.
Last year, Meta (META) -), Microsoft (MSFT) -) and Amazon (AMZN) -) teamed up with mapping company TomTom to launch Overture Maps Foundation to create a mapping service that allows third-party developers to create their own global mapping and navigation products.
On Wednesday, the consortium launched its first open dataset with over 59 million places of interest with data on everything from buildings to transportation and administrative boundaries.
“Anyone who works in mapping knows that the initial data is just the beginning; the ongoing challenge lies in maintaining the data amidst constant changes to meet user expectations," said Marc Prioleau, executive director of Overture Maps Foundation. "Overture plans to build a broad collaboration that can build and maintain an up-to-date, comprehensive database of POIs.”
The group is betting that the ease with which third-party developers can make apps with the open map data sets will give them the edge over the dominance of Google and Apple's products.
The first batch of datasets are available to download here.
