Why doesn’t Google Maps work in South Korea, certainly one of Asia’s most developed, tourist-friendly nations?

When Taiwanese traveler Eric Weng goes to South Korea, he resigns himself to toggling between three completely different map functions to navigate his means round.

That’s as a result of Google Maps, ubiquitous in a lot of the world, doesn’t absolutely work in South Korea. So annually, thousands and thousands of holiday makers like Weng should obtain different Korean apps like Kakao Map and Naver Map, which lack the detailed capabilities they’ve come to count on from Google.

“It’s tiring because you need to download three apps, then juggle three to find a way to where you want to go,” mentioned Weng.

By all different measures, South Korea is a tech-savvy vacationer haven. Most abroad platforms don’t have any such problem working, together with different Google merchandise like Gmail and YouTube.

While it’s not the one nation the place Google Maps doesn’t absolutely work, South Korea stands out in stark distinction to different nations like China, Russia or Cuba, which have lengthy had fractious relationships with the United States. By distinction, South Korea is a longtime US ally with American troops stationed within the nation, in addition to certainly one of Asia’s most developed economies.

At the guts of this problem lies a set of map information owned by the South Korean authorities – which Google says it must create a complete map of the nation, full with navigation directions. For practically 20 years, Google has requested South Korea to export that information and authorities have repeatedly refused, citing nationwide safety considerations.

But consultants say the difficulty is extra sophisticated than that.

This decades-long wrestle started over geopolitical tensions, they are saying, and has since expanded to bigger questions of “digital sovereignty” and market dominance. In different phrases: who will get to regulate a rustic’s information? Who advantages, and at what value? What occurs to native firms when a multinational tech big enters the scene?

These are the questions now being debated by South Korean authorities, who’re anticipated to approve or deny Google’s newest export request in early October.

For vacationers like Weng, the choice brings the hope that Google Maps might lastly come to South Korea – which might “make life much easier,” he mentioned.

The beef between South Korea and Google started in 2008, when Google Maps labeled some Korean areas by their Japanese names, in accordance with Soyun Ahn, an assistant professor of communications at Boston College who focuses on international platform governance.

The disputed names are a extremely delicate matter in South Korea, which was colonized by Japan for greater than three a long time within the early 1900s. Though the 2 nations have since normalized relations, tensions typically flare, particularly relating to unresolved historic disputes.

South Korean authorities repeatedly requested Google to vary the situation names – however Google resisted and have become embroiled in a number of different South Korean map-labeling controversies within the following years, Ahn wrote in a paper concerning the matter.

“The two entities have been in a power struggle for two decades,” she informed CNN. “They’ve had a rocky relationship from the very beginning.”

By the early 2010s, South Korea had created a 1:25,000 scale satellite tv for pc map – which suggests every unit on the map corresponds to 25,000 items on the bottom (for instance, one inch on the map might characterize 25,000 inches on a street). It was made freely accessible on-line, together with to customers abroad.

This 1:25,000 map is what Google Maps presently makes use of to depict South Korea. That’s why whenever you have a look at the nation on the app, it exhibits lots of fundamental geography together with metropolis areas, roads and streets, even many sights and prepare strains.

But what it doesn’t present are detailed strolling or driving directions. When you attempt to plot a route, Google Maps will merely present a message that reads: “Can’t seem to find a way there.”

The purpose, Google claims, is as a result of it requires South Korea’s extra detailed 1:5,000 map – the place every unit on the map represents 5,000 items on the bottom.

Soon after this superior map was launched in 2016, Google submitted a proper request to entry the info – which, beneath South Korean legislation, can’t be exported to abroad servers with out authorities approval.

After a collection of hearings and closed-door conferences that at occasions turned heated (“Congresspeople were almost shouting,” Ahn mentioned), South Korea firmly rejected the request, citing the truth that Google had declined to take away delicate navy information from its present satellite tv for pc maps.

In a blog post printed in early August, Google mentioned the satellite tv for pc photographs utilized in its maps are captured by different firms then offered by way of open markets – so even when Google Maps blurred delicate areas in South Korea, they’d nonetheless be seen within the authentic satellite tv for pc imagery, which anybody should buy.

“Nevertheless, to address the Korean government’s concerns, Google will take additional security measures, including blurring sensitive facilities on Google Maps and Google Earth,” it mentioned within the weblog submit.

But disagreements proceed roiling over whether or not Google ought to be given the extra detailed map information – and, some consultants argue, whether or not it wants it in any respect.

On the floor, the principle problem is nationwide safety; South Korea lawmakers argue that exporting its 1:5,000 map might reveal navy bases and authorities amenities.

But some consultants are skeptical about these dangers.

“The national security concern is probably overstated, because the maps are available widely,” mentioned Scott McQuire, a professor of media and communications on the University of Melbourne, who researches the usage of media applied sciences in cities.

Google made the identical argument, writing in its weblog submit that the 1:5,000 map “has already undergone a rigorous government security review, with sensitive information removed.” It identified that home Korean mapping apps like Kakao and Naver are “also based on this data.”

CNN has reached out to South Korea’s National Geographic Information Institute, which produces and distributes the maps in query.

Experts say different, broader considerations could also be enjoying a job.

A giant concern is that Google Maps’ dominance might displace opponents like Naver and Kakao, if it was allowed into the nation.

“I think that there is a kind of interest in having homegrown mapping platforms,” mentioned McQuire, pointing to family-run conglomerates like Samsung and LG which have dominated the economic system for many years.

Naver and Kakao have additionally publicly protested towards permitting Google Maps to make use of the info, arguing it’s not honest to Korean firms that pay taxes and comply with native rules, Ahn mentioned.

The sentiment is widespread; a recent survey of 239 spatial data firms in South Korea discovered that 90% opposed exporting the map information to Google, citing potential hurt to gross sales and job losses.

There’s additionally simply no actual incentive for South Korea to simply accept Google’s request, Ahn mentioned. It wouldn’t carry a major financial increase; there’s no public demand, since all residents use Naver and Kakao anyway; and the influence on vacationers is negligible in comparison with their different considerations.

But for Google, South Korea’s maps could possibly be extremely precious.

Most of South Korea’s 51 million residents use smartphones and have huge digital footprints, which might permit Google to make use of the map information for different profitable functions, consultants say.

For instance, Google might doubtlessly substitute native suppliers on platforms that depend on on-line maps – like Airbnb and Uber, which do work in South Korea however use Korean mapping instruments. The variety of apps counting on Korean mapping instruments – like rideshare platform Kakao T – might dwindle with Google on the scene.

That might open the door to an infinite quantity of data on person habits, like how individuals are shifting or interacting with on-line providers.

“I think there (would) be that level of concern – that it’s not just the availability of the map as a map, but the map becomes a baseline for a whole lot of other services,” McQuire mentioned.

Opinions are break up on whether or not Google even wants the info, because it claims.

Both Ahn and McQuire argued that Google has sufficient different instruments at its disposal that it might create its personal detailed map of South Korea if it needed – suggesting the corporate could also be hoping to keep away from the associated fee and labor of doing so. After all, Ahn claimed, Google doesn’t request information immediately from the federal government in lots of different nations the place it does have full mapping and navigation providers.

In a press release to CNN, nevertheless, Google insisted that the 1:25,000 map is “fundamentally insufficient for the precision required for modern turn-by-turn navigation, especially for densely populated urban areas, or for features like detailed walking and cycling guidance on narrow roads and alleyways.”

It makes use of each 1:25,000 and 1:5,000 maps in different nations, with the much less detailed model appropriate for “areas with no buildings, such as deserts, oceans, and mountain ranges,” it mentioned.

Google mentioned when it buys map information from third-party suppliers in different nations, it requires the info to be “legally compliant in their respective countries.”

“We have not experienced issues with data export approvals in this process so far,” it mentioned.

Vivian Chen, a Taiwanese traveler who goes to South Korea three or 4 occasions a yr, says the translations on the South Korean apps are sometimes complicated.

While the Korean apps supply an English interface, it may be clunky and laborious to make use of. She can’t discover the dwell navigation device that, in Google Maps, would give real-time instructions as she walks. And addresses typically don’t translate nicely, requiring a second or third app to assist discover the best location.

Larger sights like buying malls or well-known palaces are simpler to search out shortly, “but it’s very hard to find the English names for smaller stores,” she mentioned – making her reluctant to enterprise off the overwhelmed path or discover lesser-known areas.

This might all change within the coming months when an inter-government council – representing the ministries of commerce, international affairs, nationwide protection, intelligence and safety and others – makes its resolution.

“It’s very likely they will reject the (request) again” until Google makes main concessions or exhibits a willingness to cooperate with the federal government on their considerations, mentioned Ahn.

However, she added, it’s potential South Korea might approve the request as a strategic transfer to win different concessions from the US – particularly in commerce.

The two nations struck a commerce deal in late July, which requires 15% tariffs on items from South Korea, however the finer particulars are nonetheless being hammered out in ongoing talks. “With the new Trump administration, I can only imagine the pressure will be so much more,” Ahn mentioned.

Even past this resolution, Google is dealing with challenges in different components of the world – with a major federal antitrust case ongoing within the US, lodged by the Department of Justice, and reviews of one other antitrust probe concentrating on Google Maps particularly.

“For a long time, people thought about Google as a public service – it’s all free, we don’t pay, it’s ‘do no evil,’” mentioned McQuire. “Well, the attitude’s changing now, and people can see Google more clearly for what it is – which is a very, very large enterprise, which produces some really clever products, but is enormously intrusive in its data gathering capacities.”

Those implications are entrance of thoughts for South Korea – with Google standing to doubtlessly achieve lots if the federal government decides of their favor in October. For vacationers, the confusion is prone to proceed till then – or maybe till native apps get much more visitor-friendly.

Chen, who’s as a result of return to South Korea in December, says the shortage of clear instructions is “so frustrating and irritating that it makes me almost not want to come.”

“How can it be so inconvenient?” she mentioned. Seoul is “such a modern city, how can it have such a terrible shortcoming?”