HÀ NỘI - Cốc Cốc, a Vietnamese web browser and search engine, has updated information on about 1.2 million service locations on its digital map -- Cốc Cốc Map. The map runs on both PCs and mobile phones.

The locations include any places having services (excluding private houses), such as restaurants, shops, pharmacies, petrol stations or ATMs.

They are defined by Cốc Cốc as points of interest (POIs). The developer has built a POI database in 60 out of 63 cities and provinces nationwide.

There are about 260,000 POIs in Hà Nội, 400,000 in HCM City and nearly 80,000 in Đà Nẵng.

According to the company’s statistics, the total length of streets collected by Cốc Cốc’s employees so far has reached about 90,000 kilometres, twice the length of the equator.

The developers said they built Cốc Cốc Map with criteria different to similar services on the market.

They chose to enter "niche market" which had not been "occupied" by foreign companies.

"When looking for services on Cốc Cốc Map, users will see the results returned as locations with specific addresses, accompanied by actual snapshots. The locations all have detailed information whether it is just a very small POI such as a trà đá (ice tea) shop," a Cốc Cốc representative said.

Cốc Cốc said it hoped the map would become a useful tool for domestic users, not just tourists.

In 2013, Cốc Cốc Map has completed the initial goal of collecting information of about 500,000 POIs.

However, the team later discovered that the database collected had changed significantly in just a few months.

The reason was related to the fluctation of Vietnamese enterprises, especially small and micro-sized enterprises.

Therefore, to ensure the accuracy, the map’s database is directly collected and updated regularly by the Cốc Cốc team themselves.

The data is updated every two or three months in Hà Nội and HCM City and monthly for Đà Nẵng. - VNS