"Merely quantitative differences, beyond a certain point, pass into qualitative changes." -- [[Karl Max]]

This is actually a fascinating topic that I researched a bit, because I was immensely frustrated to be unable to use Chinese maps (specifically Amap, my favorite) outside China. First of all, people are unaware of just how superior Chinese maps are: some of the features are so insane that you really feel it's magic. For instance: - they show you when you change lane on the highway - they have a live countdown of all the red lights in China - to OP's point below, as a pedestrian you can choose you route based on % of shade (as in, whether you won't be walking directly under the sun) - they have real-time live tracking of all the public buses in China. Like, they show you precisely where your bus is at this very moment and when it'll reach you - they have exact toll fee calculations so you can choose your route based on this - they have such insane comprehensive mapping coverage that they can make you take a shortcut through the internal parking garage of a shopping mall, using a different exit to bypass the most congested stretch of road (true story: zhihu.com/question/269039952). Plus, the navigation UI/UX is so well done that I've legit never made a mistake during years of driving in China. The same VERY MUCH cannot be said of Google Maps or Waze: driving with it in Malaysia, I can hardly do a single trip without making a mistake, which drives me completely nuts (hence my frustration!). Like you have 3 possible roads to take on the right and it just says "turn right": "I fuck*ng know, but which right???!!!" The reason why it's not really available outside China, turns out, is mostly the availability of data. It's just not realistically feasible for them to build their own map data globally. Apple took that path and, despite having every conceivable advantage, it took them 4 years of preparation before even launching in a single metro area, and to this day they only cover 35 countries. Map data is extremely concentrated. Google is the big player (they own Waze too) and they certainly won't sell data to Chinese competitors. HERE - owned by a consortium of German automakers, Mitsubishi and Intel - is pretty much the only supplier Chinese companies can use. Which is what both Baidu Maps and Amap have done for their (very limited) overseas services. But HERE is the mapping that's natively embedded in car navigation systems and everyone knows how much it sucks: it's even worse than Google... The reason why Chinese maps are so good in China is because of 3 factors: - the base data they have at their disposal is excellent: there is a fiercely competitive domestic ecosystem with 19 companies surveying and maintaining their own datasets. Compare this with basically just HERE for the rest of the world (and smaller players like Tom-Tom and Open Street Maps which are not even worth mentioning)... - they have a massive user base which enables them to get excellent real-time data, which they don't have outside China (a chicken and egg problem) - lastly, they rely on the Beidou positioning system which is significantly more precise than the West's GPS (gpsworld.com/chinas-beidou-c…). That's how you can get things like the "see when you change lane" feature. So unfortunately the answer is that, unless you go inside China and test it for yourself, you're unlikely to ever understand what a truly great map app can be. And this is generally something applicable to so much of what China has built: great tech is often all about the ecosystem and ecosystems, by definition, can't really be exported.

You cannot capably protect the ocean if you have no way to monitor its depths. I'd rather deal with the plastic problem than restrict some people sticking sensors on jellyfish.