TradeMe drops Smaps for Google

New Zealand internet auction giant TradeMe will dump its popular electronic mapping site Smaps at the end of the month.

It will now use Google's mapping application Google Maps on its sub-sites, including Travelbug and TradeMe Property.

TradeMe business manager Mike O'Donnell said while they had received a great amount of positive feedback from users, they had decided to concentrate on areas where they had an advantage.

“At the end of the day doing mapping well is about innovating and moving quickly.

“We’ve got a few other businesses that are doing quite well as well and we decided to focus on our core businesses and pretty much just accept that we were unlikely to beat Google at this game,” he said.

The move comes after a relatively lacklustre performance of Smaps in the online map market in New Zealand.

Figures from web traffic analysts Nielsen/NetRatings show Smaps running a distant second to Wises, though it shows no figures for Google Maps.

Nielsen/NetRatings' figures show Wises had 324,000 domestic visitors in October while Smaps had 154,000.

Travelbug, the site for people travelling in New Zealand, switched to Google Maps at the end of October and TradeMe Property will make the switch at the end of the month.

Smaps was developed by Wellington firm ProjectX.