Wonobo draws Google into ‘Street’ fight

Move over Google Street View. A medium-sized Mumbai-based mapping firm is looking to replicate the Internet search giant’s famed service with the launch of Wonobo on Tuesday.

Google Street View, which is currently struggling with Indian authorities to get the required permissions to take pictures of Indian city streets, works by capturing photos of almost every street in major cities and stitches the images together to create a 360-degree panoramic view of the streets.

Wonobo, which was launched by Genesys International — a Mumbai-based company that was founded over two decades ago by brothers Sol and Sajid Malik— works on the same principles as Google Street View and is now available for 12 major Indian cities and will soon be expanded to 54 cities.

Wonobo, which has been incubated by an almost $35 million investment, is a 360-degree view platform that offers a 3D view of cities and comes with placeholders to point towards businesses, city guides, stories and walking tours.

According to industry insiders, Genesys has worked closely with government authorities in a bid to comply with regulations.

“We are the first urban chronicle of today’s India, having mapped panoramic imagery of thousands of square kilometres and close to 10 million places of interest across the country. We are confident that Wonobo will be a major value creator for an entirely new ecosystem of businesses in the years to come,” said Sajid Malik, CMD, Genesys International.