Israeli Built the Popular Mapping Program

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Though in the past, the paper maps were the most innovative inventions of their time and helped people with their long trips to new places, it was quite difficult to read those maps when they drove their cars. But since the technology has taken everything into its hands, now people can easily find their way to new places using the GPS systems and digital maps, Google Maps being one of the favorites of all. But there is another map app named Waze which came from Israel, which even attracted Google and made it buy the technology behind the app.

Ehud Shabtai is the founder of Waze, who was born and brought up in Israel. He completed his graduate degree in Philosophy from Tel-Aviv University, followed by a B.S. degree in Computer Science from the same university. Shabtai founded Waze when he encountered a problem in finding the right routes and less traffic on them, to reach different places in lesser time. For this, one of his friends gifted him a GPS. Though GPS was good for finding the direction, it was not able to give information about the traffic on the roads. in 2006, he developed and launched a new map app, named FreeMap Israel. The app included a database for the Israeli map and crowdsourced the information of the Speed Cameras. The application used maps from Mapa Ltd. But with the instant growth of the app, Shabtai also received a copyright claim from Mapa Ltd.

In 2008, along with Uri Levine and Amir Shinar, to commercialize the app, Shabtai launched the Waze app. The app was like a clean slate, that would collect data from different users, such that directions to a new place, which would get stored in the app’s database, and would help other people with their trips. The app promoted a new strategy of building, playing, and monetizing the app.