This is an FAQ that's been asked repeatedly going back to 2012, if not earlier. Honestly it wouldn't hurt to simply do a search.
In any case the answer is basically "horses for courses".
Nearmap is great for wide area. Drones are great for small areas that you need to capture in higher detail than Nearmap, or at a higher frequency, or from the sides.
You'll find drones are regularly used for things like asset inspections. Check out the use cases for Propeller Aero and SiteSee as examples.
But drones are not useful if you need to look at vast/separated areas. Take for example a solar installation business (which is a common Nearmap use case). They use Nearmap to produce quotes and it's not economical (or timely) to try and get a drone operator to fly over each prospect's premises on demand.
As to whether Nearmap is looking to incorporate drones? Unlikely in the near future. Nearmap's unique proposition is the combination of high efficiency capture, processing and delivery, and now also insight derived from the vast troves of data through AI/ML.
Adding drone data to that mix could be done but distracts from their core proposition. Look at it another way - why not just build another platform that incorporates Nearmap's imagery/content, and drone captures? Why is it any better for Nearmap to do it than Joe Blogs All Imagery Platform Inc?
NEA Price at posting:
$2.84 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
