According to sources, the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping will issue the Internet map service Grade A license, and Sina, Baidu, and other enterprises are expected to get the license in first batch. It is understood that by the end of 2010, those who have not obtained a license but still in business will be regulated according to law. It is reported that currently the number of applicants for the qualification has reached 26, including Sina, Baidu, MapABC, Mapbar, Alibaba, Nokia, Tencent, Sogou and other 10 companies applying for the first batch of Internet map service qualification.
With the development of Internet technology, the Internet map brought people great convenience, whether it is travel, tourism or shopping, rent, they cannot do without the help of the Internet map. According to incomplete statistics, at present there are about 42,000 websites engaged in the Internet map services in China; a number of Internet giants such as Sina, Alibaba, Baidu, etc. have been involved in the field and created a growing market value. According to data, 2008, market value of online map in China reached 1.05 billion. Experts predict that by 2012, the market size will reach 2.84 billion yuan.

In order to regulate the market, recently the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping published latest revision of the “Internet map service professional standards” to divide the Internet map services into map search, location service, geographic information mark services, download and copy services, send and reference services, covering the mainstream of the market of the map service. Taking into account the different levels and scales of China’s Internet map service units, qualifications are divided into A, B classes, and for the first time to include mobile phones, handheld computers Internet maps services into the scope of management.

It is known that this was the largest function update since the map search was released, and its official version was expected to be officially launched in the Baidu world.

An internal e-mail from Baidu showed that Baidu Map team released a new version of the map internal test last Friday. According to the official news from Baidu, the Baidu World Congress 2009 which would be held on 18th of this year had changed its name to “The General Assembly of Baidu technological innovation”, and speculation inside the industry was that new Baidu map might be launched in this Assembly.

Baidu map search is a localization map search service jointly provided by Baidu and the provider of electronic map-MAPBAR.COM. Through Baidu map search, you can find the geographical locations of designated cities, urban areas, streets and buildings, which also provides line look-up function.