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Today Wayfinder launches an on-line map service and the newspaper Metro's news
portal is first in line to provide this service to their readers.
Metro is primarily connecting the Wayfinder map service to support Metro Market
and Metro Travel. This is an important deal for Wayfinder making Metro not only
the first client from the newspaper industry, but a strategic partner for the
days to come.
Today Wayfinder is introducing the new on-line map service and the first client
to put it to use is the international newspaper empire Metro, launching the service
on the sites Metro Market and Metro Travel. The map service features map search
and will expand in the near future to include other parts of the Metro news portal.
Wayfinder and Metro will initially float the map service on the Swedish market,
but the collaboration is soon to expand into other markets, geographical areas
and languages. The readers will have access to a map search at first covering
Western Europe and the US, in the near future covering the entire world.
- We are firm in our determination to make a global launch of the Wayfinder map
service to include all our markets. This is the perfect way to create added value
with the services that we provide on our portal, and in addition create added
value to the entire portal as such, says My Holmström, Global Business Director,
Metro Modern Media AB.
Wayfinder will add features to the map service offering the Metro readers map
routing, e.g. the right way to a chosen destination is marked up with a red line.
Included in this functionality is the possibility to share routes by mail to friends;
a neat feature when tipping your best friend about that special restaurant in
Paris. Future additional map service features will of course also be made accessible
by mobile phone.
- This map service collaboration with Metro is merely the beginning of what our
partnership is able to offer. It's important for Wayfinder to take one step at
a time into the Metro news portal and focus on the future features in order to
make them valuable to the visitors of the site, says Daniel Nordberg, Business
Development Director, Wayfinder.
Metro has about 1 417 000 readers in Sweden and the digital edition is growing
in importance as the number of visitors is steadily increasing. The competition
between the large media houses news portals is getting tougher and it's vital
to find new ways of holding on to the readers.
Metro is represented in 19 countries and exist in 64 editions, thus making it
the largest international daily press in the world with more than 18.5 million
readers every day. Not many media houses are able to compete with Metro's to the
widespread geographical distribution and ability to cover news worldwide. With
the Wayfinder map service, Metro gets an even better hand to play with.
About Wayfinder
Wayfinder offers map, direction and GPS navigation services accessible by mobile
phone. From these basic navigation services, we provide mobile phone users with
content services, including digital city guide books, traffic information, currency
conversion and weather reports. Our clients include phone manufacturers, Sony
Ericsson and Nokia, and operators such as Telenor, Telefonica, A1 and Cingular.
The products are sold to end users throughout Europe and the USA. Wayfinder has
been listed on the NGM Equity stock exchange since 21 October 2005. Wayfinder
currently has about 75 employees. Our head office is in Stockholm, Sweden.
http://www.wayfinder.com |