Coc Coc, a Vietnamese web browser and search engine, has updated information on about 1.2 million service locations on its digital map -- Coc Coc 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 Coc Coc 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 Ha Noi, 400,000 in HCM City and nearly 80,000 in Da Nang.

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

The developers said they built Coc Coc 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 Coc Coc 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 tra da (ice tea) shop," a Coc Coc representative said.

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

In 2013, Coc Coc 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 Coc Coc team themselves.

The data is updated every two or three months in Ha Noi and HCM City and monthly for Da Nang. — VNS