HERE Introduces Open Mobility Marketplace

HERE Technologies today launched its Open Mobility Marketplace service at CES in Las Vegas. This announcement is significant for the on-demand market because the Open Mobility Marketplace allows transportation services providers — from driving and delivery to organizing regular commuter bus rides — to list and compete through a searchable API, from a site, in an app, or through backend integration.  ZDNet has a short summary, and HERE’s press release is here (pun acknowledged).

Utilizing demand analysis and fleet optimization algorithms, as well as asset tracking capabilities, the HERE Open Mobility Marketplace promises to surface the best price and most flexible source of mobility services for a business. For example, a retailer could search for one on-demand delivery driver or an entire fleet of drivers registered with the HERE service.

The current mobility companies, including Uber, Lyft, GrubHub, and automakers exploring on-demand cars, should take notice. Aggregating demand at a higher level of abstraction allows HERE to connect users to more options than the branded transportation providers across a broader range of use cases than Uber or Lyft, which focus primarily on the consumer. HERE could break the duopoly in local car services while delivering more flexibility for business considering using on-demand resources.