NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2011 — HopStop (www.hopstop.com), a leading provider of pedestrian navigation and mobile transit services, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has awarded the company a patent for its popular location-based service that provides door-to-door mass transit and walking directions. The patent touches on major trends in mobile applications and local navigation.
U.S. Patent No. 7,957,871, "Methods and Apparatuses for Navigation in Urban Environments," discloses the innovative technology and methodology used in HopStop’s dynamic transit routing engine that combines disparate transit data, street-level mapping data and user-generated input to provide optimal multi-modal directions and travel options for web and mobile users. The patent confirms HopStop’s position as an innovator in pedestrian navigation and transit routing, and reinforces the company’s position as an industry leader in location-based services.
"Mapping and navigation on smartphones present an ideal user experience upon which to layer compelling, popular and valuable local services to consumers and advertisers alike," said Joe Meyer, CEO of HopStop. "This patent further accelerates HopStop’s leadership role in the industry, and allows us to take greater advantage of the huge market opportunity presented by local search and mobile services."
By virtue of its highly engaging user experience, HopStop provides national, regional and local advertisers with the unique opportunity to geo-target ads and offers to users on a hyper-local basis as a direct result of knowing their current location and future whereabouts, as well as the day of the week and the time of the day during which they’re traveling. Due to the highly utilitarian nature of its popular service, 72 percent of HopStop visitors using the service return within 24 hours of their previous visit, and 37% of visitors use the service 25 times or more per month, thus making HopStop a very compelling target for local search advertising across multiple platforms, most notably mobile.
Demand for mobile navigation is growing rapidly as more consumers look to leverage their mobile phones for location-relevant information. A recent study by Pew’s Internet and American Life Project found that 55 percent of smartphone owners use their devices to get directions, thus making navigation one of the top use cases for smartphone users.
About HopStop
HopStop (www.hopstop.com), a leading location-based travel service, provides door-to-door walking, biking, transit, taxi and hourly car rental directions to city residents and tourists alike. The company has built the first national network to facilitate and encourage intra-city as well as city-to-city travel by aggregating hundreds of transit systems into one streamlined navigational user experience. The company’s environmentally-friendly service is currently available in 62 major metropolitan markets throughout five countries including the U.S., Canada, England, France and Russia. HopStop also offers point-to-point directions and mapping services (and the locations of nearby subway stations and bus stops) via web (www.HopStop.com) and mobile (www.hopstop.com/mobile) services including industry-leading iPhone (www.HopStop.com/iPhone) and Android (www.HopStop.com/Android) apps, a popular mobile site (m.hopstop.com), as well as advanced SMS capabilities for requesting and receiving directions while on-the-go. HopStop is based in New York City, and is financed by private investors.