exping's First Anniversary: Discovering More Possibilities in Map Creation

Hey, co-creators, explorers, and creators of exping,These aren't just simple titles. They represent the different stages of exping's growth.

• Co-creators: You were with us from the start, supporting exping through its confusing beta phase.
• Explorers: You witnessed exping's transition from a "community" to a "tool".
• Creators: When exping entered the public eye as a "tool", you were there to welcome us.

Since its launch on March 21, 2022, exping has turned one year old. No matter when or where our paths crossed, the exping team sincerely thanks you for your recognition and support.

We've climbed mountains and crossed valleys

For many people, 2022 was a year filled with uncertainty and challenges.

How should we describe our year? Perhaps it's best characterized as a journey of climbing mountains and crossing valleys.

It's a long story, so let's start from the beginning.

On March 21, 2022, our small team of seven pressed the release button for exping on the App Store. We were excited, thrilled, and nervous all at once - a moment that remains vivid in our memories. Fortunately, when exping first entered the public eye as a "tool", most of the feedback was positive. This gave our entire team a tremendous boost in confidence and motivation. Of course, there were skeptical voices too.

In the three months following the launch, we kept "climbing" towards our Q2 goals, finally launching our first major feature - routes - in June. Eager to share our achievement, CLU published an article titled exping | How was a map creation tool born?。We're grateful to SSPAI for featuring us on their Matrix homepage, which helped more creators understand exping's value and the story behind its creation.

The journey of climbing always involves crossing mountains and valleys.

Just when we thought our team would maintain its momentum and move forward steadily, our product manager decided to leave the team to explore new opportunities. For a small team, this was emotionally challenging both professionally and personally. But, just as exping's original intention was to encourage exploration and new experiences - to "exping the world" - we wished each other well and embraced the changes, despite the difficulty.

After experiencing these team changes, we faced broader social changes as well.

In November 2022, due to the pandemic, our office in Haizhu District was locked down. We transitioned to remote work for an extended period, setting up a virtual office to facilitate this. At the time, we were developing Web browsing capabilities and restructuring our sharing functions.

Then, team members started testing positive for COVID-19 one after another, which slowed our progress. After a challenging month, we finally launched version v1.3 in December.

The COVID-19 severely impacted people's travel plans, which was undoubtedly a difficult period for map-marking tools like ours.

Although exping faced numerous challenges in its first year, we believe that change is the essence of life. By embracing and adapting to various changes with a positive attitude while staying true to our direction, we found the resilience to weather external challenges.

Our exploration never stopped

From March 2022 to now, exping has undergone a year of iterative development. We've evolved from the initial v1.0.0 to the current v1.3.5, releasing 19 updates and launching 7 major features.

In February this year, exping was officially launched on major Android app markets, including Huawei, Xiaomi, Vivo, and Coolapk. As our user base grew, exping expanded to cover 130 countries.

During this period, exping received several accolades: "Editor's Choice of the Week" in the App Store China region, "Highlight" from SSPAI, multiple recommendations from PriceTag, and interview coverage from 36kr, among others.

We're deeply grateful for everyone's attention and support, which has allowed exping to serve an ever-growing community of map creators.

Throughout this year of exploration, we've remained committed to exping's core mission: "to create the ultimate map creation experience". We've focused on refining and improving our three key functions: Place marking, Routes, and Sharing.

Place marking

Place marking is the core function of exping and the foundation of map creation.

Initially, in v1.0.0, place marking was limited to "search" functionality, and even then, search results were often limited. This was far from the "ultimate marking" experience we envisioned.

As we collected user feedback, we continuously optimized the "place marking" function. Our update logs show that we iterated on this feature alone five times.

In our latest v1.3.5 version, we not only provide smarter search results but have also added a map view to the search interface. This allows for flexible place searches by moving the map, making it more intuitive to mark locations directly on the map.

Moreover, in exping's product philosophy, we view the "map" as a canvas, an alternative medium for creation. We've integrated "personalization" into place marking. Users can now go beyond just selecting emojis to mark places - they can upload any photo, and even add notes to places, allowing for free and casual expression of their impressions.

Routes

Moving from points to lines, our reason for developing the "route" function is simple - we hope routes can give more meaning to places. Routes connect not just locations on a map, but a creator's memories of those places.

As the first major feature launched after exping's release, routes have witnessed our exploratory steps and recorded our team's growth.

To meet the advanced needs of our creators, we upgraded our routes feature (in Beta) with v1.2.3: we increased the route limit from 3 to 7, and the number of places per line from 20 to 30.

As we've iterated on the route function, we've also optimized many practical small features to help creators build better routes. These include providing multiple travel modes, customized transportation options, and the ability to view distances and estimated times between route points.

Map Sharing

In our initial version, creators could export map covers in batches with one click after completing their map in exping, efficiently creating various themed map posters without switching to other software.

As we deepened our understanding of user needs, we realized that the old "export" function couldn't meet creators' sharing needs across different scenarios. Sharing is a crucial part of the creation process, and we felt it deserved a better, more versatile entry point to meet various sharing needs.

In the v1.3 version launched in December 2022, we made three significant updates to map sharing:

First, we introduced Web browsing. We didn't want interesting content to be confined to a fixed app container. The web is a free medium where you can share links on different social media platforms and share interesting things with your friends.

The maps on our Web version aren't static - they're interactive and browsable, best preserving the creator's intentions. In the near future, you'll even be able to embed exping maps in Notion. This is what we believe sharing should be like. While exping's app is a tool, it shouldn't limit how you browse and share your work.

Second, we redesigned static map sharing. We've introduced a poster format where, with simple selection and movement, you can create an image rich with information. These posters preview the basic information of maps, routes, and places, allowing friends to quickly grasp geographical locations while also seeing the information the creator wants to convey. We have plans for even more engaging poster templates in the future.

Third, we now allow users to enable search engine indexing for public maps. This means your creations can be indexed by search engines. As your work spreads, others will be able to find your map through search engines, allowing more users to discover your beautiful creations. A well-crafted map deserves to attract attention.

Other Improvements

Over the past year, in addition to refining these three core functions, we've completed many other enhancements:

• Launched a "Data Statistics" function
• Enabled one-click import of Apple Maps "Guides"
• Introduced an Exping minimalist map style and launched multiple map styles
• Added iOS desktop widgets
• Replaced our emoji set with a brand new style
• And much more...

Creators' stories

Everyone is a curator; everyone is a map creator.

exping is a map marking tool, but it's slightly different from pure creation tools in that we've retained our original "taste community", now called "Explore". This is where creators' publicly shared maps gather, each reflecting unique insights into cities and places, recording the connections between creators and their environments in both life and work.

Every time we see a map shared publicly by a creator, we ask ourselves: Has exping helped the creator bring their vision to life? What is the meaning or value of this map content to them?

The answer we see in these public maps is clear: Map creation is gradually integrating into creators' lives and work.

In daily life, Coffee maps provided inspiration for exping's birth. Users love marking the coffee shops they've visited or coffee markets they've attended, sharing these experiences on various social platforms.

Of course, it's not just about coffee. Creators record all aspects of their daily lives on exping, from city walks to stamp collection maps, film locations to parent-child hiking routes, and even couple's memory maps.

Beyond everyday experiences, some maps carry deeper meaning and are worth sharing widely.

Guangzhou Reliable Pet Hospital Map: Pet owners have compiled reliable pet hospitals on the map, recording real evaluations and experiences to help other pet owners in need.

Class of 2006 Exclusive Map: Another touching example is that, a creator marked their high school and the universities where classmates were admitted. While jokingly called a "free meal map", it stands as a testament to the shared struggles and achievements of their youth.

In professional settings,

We've seen diverse applications: B&B owners use exping to mark check-in routes for guests, administrative staff plot company team-building locations and routes, delivery personnel map out fixed delivery stores and routes, and many more work-related scenarios.

BOND's Women's Month Map 2023: Event organizers marked Women's Month event locations on exping and published them as online maps in WeChat official account articles, helping readers intuitively understand event locations.

Whether for personal or professional use, we truly feel that exping is helping creators effectively convey place-related information, solving communication challenges through maps. It's becoming an increasingly popular form of communication, continuously adopted by more people.

Next year

Looking ahead, we're more determined than ever to position exping as an excellent "tool", helping everyone create better maps and delivering the ultimate map creation experience. We know exping still has a long way to go. While refining our core functions, we also need to ensure our long-term sustainability.

Over the past year, many friends have expressed concern about exping's financial stability. Although we launched the exp+ membership service during this year's iterations, providing creators with various advanced functions and marking experiences, we recognize that our current offerings may not fully meet the diverse needs of our users across various scenarios.

In exping's 2023 plan, we aim to bring more possibilities to "map creation", making exping applicable to a wider range of scenarios and user groups. We have some exciting ideas:

Collaborative creation

Creators can sometimes feel isolated, always being in the minority. The motivation for creation rises with inspiration, is fueled by sharing and feedback, but can cool down if met with indifference. In the future, we hope to allow creators to invite others into the creation process - be they family members, friends, or colleagues - fostering a collision of creative inspirations.

Maps created through multi-person collaboration are no longer just one person's vision, but a collective work pieced together by many. The content evolves from mere place and route information to shared memories and experiences. Imagine parents jointly documenting their child's growth journey, friends recording weekend adventures together, or teams capturing thoughts and feedback during team-building exercises.

We believe this collaborative approach will make map creation more meaningful and engaging.

Breaking limitations

We've long recognized that mobile phones, as creation tools for content-rich maps, have inherent space limitations.

In our product design process, we've faced a constant dilemma. On one hand, we want to simplify map creation, giving more people the opportunity to create their own maps. This drives us to continually lower the software's usage threshold and streamline interactions. On the other hand, our more advanced creators aren't satisfied with these basic tools; they desire more comprehensive functions and a larger canvas to showcase their creativity.

exping's highly praised Web browsing feature is a good start, allowing users to freely explore their creations on a large screen. In the future, we plan to go a step further by introducing editable Web maps. This will allow creators to work on computers and tablets, no longer constrained by mobile screen sizes.

Enriching map content

If we think of a map as a "canvas", then places and routes are like pencils and pushpins, bringing rich colors to the picture. Over the past year, we've prioritized the accuracy of place information, ensuring the navigability and effectiveness of map data. However, this approach has somewhat standardized the map creation process.

Looking ahead, we hope to empower creators to present maps in the most creative ways possible. This could mean incorporating hand-drawn arrows, interesting pictures, relevant videos, or even real-time weather patterns. Our vision is to enable truly dynamic, expressive maps.

In closing

We're truly grateful for exping's success thus far.

The exping team sincerely thanks you for your recognition and support. We also want to express our gratitude to every member of the exping team, past and present. Whether you've been with us from the start or joined us along the way, thank you for your dedication and hard work.

As we look towards exping's second anniversary, we hope to deliver results that make our creators even more satisfied and inspired. Thank you for taking the time to read this far.

Your support means everything to us, and we're excited for the journey ahead.