Most of us open our map apps every day, but have you ever stopped to think about how they actually work, or how little they’ve changed in a decade?
In this episode, Jianggan and Shaolin (co-founder of NextBillion.ai) dive deep into the invisible world of mapping technology , the infrastructure powering everything from ride-hailing to food delivery, and explore why keeping maps accurate is one of tech’s most expensive and underappreciated challenges.
Tune in to discover:
Why maps haven’t really evolved in 10 years — and why that’s a problem;
The hidden cost of keeping maps alive (and how they “decay” without constant updates);
How local players like Grab and Naver build their own maps;
The role of AI in fixing global address chaos
Timestamps:
05:30:00 – Why maps stop improving once they’re “good enough”
10:00:00 – Local vs global: who should build the world’s maps?
15:30:00 – AI, addresses, and the promise of smarter navigation
22:00:00 – The future: AR maps and new ways of seeing the world
Featured materials:
Inside Luckin Coffee: How they launch 119 drinks a year | Impulso E131
WTF is Carbon Accounting?! | Impulso E89
E33: [Unfiltered CTO talks] US vs China team culture, business design, loneliness, the future
