On: France convicts Google Maps for unfair competition

[potatolicious]

Certain markets have high barriers to entry.

If the local sandwich shops start charging ridiculous rates, it's not very difficult for someone to move in and do it for cheaper.

When Google owns all the cartographic data, how exactly do you intend to compete as a newcomer? Where are you going to get the 8-figure investment to even begin to make the smallest dent against the massive dataset you need to collect?

This is the problem with the perfectly laissez-faire view: it discounts the fact that there is, in many cases, a huge barrier to entry for all new entrants once someone has the market locked down.

[shmulkey18 → potatolicious]

I fail to see how you can own all the cartographic data, does Google have a special power which allows it to prevent people from drawing maps?

Also if the barrier to entry was so high you would think that mapquest or bing maps wouldn't exist, but magically they do.

I would be surprised that someone who is active on a tech site would find it odd that a startup could raise millions of dollars in funding.

[ericd → shmulkey18]

I don't think that "Google Maps Competitor" is a very attractive pitch to VCs. At least, I certainly wouldn't invest.