HopStop Archive

NY-based transit directions site HopStop has announced a new transit directions API service which allows developers to tie into their service. Adam Ostrow has details on the launch which includes demos using Yahoo and Google mapping products. Rather than run away from the other mapping services, HopStop seems to be willing to build on top of them.

I did notice in their Google demo, the text gets cut off so you don’t see the full list of directions. But the map seems to work well and it color codes the subway lines to the map. Ostrow also notes that traffic continues to rise for HopStop and the company claims two million visitors a month.

The company raised an angel round of funding in April 2008. Perhaps HopStop should look at mapping the brand new Phoenix Metro light rail system.

NY-based transit directions site HopStop has announced some metrics regarding the service and an angel round of financing today. The numbers HopStop has shared are: 1.5 million visits, 8 million pageviews and 25 million ad impressions per month. While the numbers are substantial, they seem lower than I expected. With 8 cities in operation including tech giants NYC and SF and considering the popularity of the site, I would have imagined 1.5 million each for SF and NYC with the smaller cities contributing lesser numbers.

HopStop has also taken an undisclosed amount of investment led by a private investment group that includes Yaron Galai. Galai is CEO of Outbrain, a company that makes ratings and recommendations widgets (which we run on CN). I spoke with Yaron Galai today who couldn’t share the size of the investment but did say that, "it’s fairly significant for an angel investment."

As many of you know I am a transit nut and enjoy checking out HopStop to test the service. I find that it’s accurate most of the time but sometimes there are better patterns it can offer. I like the taxi fare estimator on HopStop as well. The MTA in NYC and most other transit agencies currently offer some travel planning themselves. Google Transit is also starting to pick up steam and is currently in about 40 cities worldwide. HopStop currently has the word-of-mouth and has to keep innovating to stay on the express track before the other services catch-up on the local track.

I could see HopStop being acquired by the TripAdvisor family or partnering with Yelp.