While some of what you have been saying may be true . I think you are generalising the entire imaging sector. The CEO himself acknowledged multiple times that there are a lot of competitors and knows there are the likes of Google and others in the space but more in the consumer space and other segments. But Nearmap has a niche clientele that they are catering their services towards as the client have visual analytics needs . Nearmap is a B2B company with particular industry clients in mind. at this stage Nearmap is tiny and can gain market share quickly. Sure maybe 5-10 years down the line it might struggle as it reaches maturity but then there are other countries and continents to map. Drones, satellites etc are tools to capture imagery , but Nearmap is a visual analytics company and their IP is the image analysis software besides the hypercam, that they offer to clients to analyse and make informed decisions .
Who knows in the future Nearmap may tie up with a satellite imaging company to produce the imagery instead of flyin the plane or use a drone or use an UFO even. But the point is at core it provides imgaes that can be analysed... So how images captured is not that relevant . Sure from a cost perspective it maybe when flying a drone or using satellite maybe cheaper than flying a plan- but at this stage both are not viable ....
I would be threatened if there is a company that provides better visual analytics tools than Nearmap.. In the interview, SC said that Nearmap are the only company in the world that are capturing the U.S. Cities with such frequency ....
NEA Price at posting:
56.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
