MapQuest Soars in Popularity After Defying Lake Name Change

In a bold stand against the renaming of Lake Ontario, MapQuest has seen a remarkable surge in its app downloads, catapulting it to the top of the navigation charts. Following President Donald Trump's executive order aimed at changing the lake's name to Lake America, MapQuest announced on Thursday that it would stick with the original name, garnering widespread support from users.

By Monday morning, the MapQuest app had climbed to the No. 1 spot in the U.S. Navigation category, reaching No. 4 overall in the U.S. App Store. In Canada, the app also performed strongly, reaching No. 2 overall. According to the company, it experienced a staggering increase in downloads, with “hundreds of thousands” of new users joining in just a few days.

Doug Berger, the General Manager of MapQuest, remarked on the company’s approach: “We took the same approach we did with the Gulf of Mexico: be part of the conversation, and give people an app that keeps the names they’re familiar with.” The decision to retain the name Lake Ontario sparked a notable rise in app usage, which surged to 50 times the normal levels.

Data from Sensor Tower revealed that MapQuest achieved 184,000 downloads globally, with 162,000 of those occurring in the U.S. during the week starting August 24, marking an increase of over tenfold from the previous week. This surge included a remarkable 128% daily increase in downloads from August 26 to August 30.

In contrast, Google Maps announced it would comply with the name change, updating its maps accordingly, while Apple Maps has yet to follow suit. MapQuest has also launched a fun online tool allowing users to humorously rename Lake Ontario and share their creations on social media, echoing a similar initiative it offered last year.

Source: techcrunch.com