The teams that worked on Waze and Google Maps collaborated, but Google couldn’t keep up with the cost pressure?

Google is combining the teams that work on Google Maps and Waze on December 9, 2022. This is to save money and stop work from being done twice. But Waze users don’t need to worry because the app will stay, and Google has no plans to lay off employees or get rid of it. A Google spokesperson revealed that more than 500 employees of Waze will be integrated into Google’s “Google Geo” team. It is reported that the “Google Geo” team handles Google Maps, Earth and Street View data. At the same time, Waze’s chief executive Neha Parikh will go through a transition period before leaving. The combination is not surprising, as Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed at the Code Conference last September. He said the company would prioritize the necessary work when resources are less than before. To improve company efficiency, he increased productivity by 20%. Efficiency usually decreases as a business grows. Integrating products with overlapping services, like YouTube Music and Google Play Music two-in-one a few years ago, reduced the number of decision-makers from three to one or two. Google bought Waze for $1.3 billion in June 2013. It’s kept Waze separate from Google Maps until now. Waze has 151 million monthly users.