By Saleh Fareed
JEDDAH — More than 75% of the world’s 7.4 billion people do not have a reliable mailing address and 4 billion persons around the world live without an address, according to Chris Sheldrick, CEO of What3Words.
Sheldrick from the London-based UK technology company what3words, along with Eng. Ziad Al- Qawasmi, CEO of MOQAM – exclusive distributor of What3Words in Saudi Arabia – chaired a press conference on Sunday here in Jeddah to announce the launch of a new free what3words app that enables users to find and share any address or location in Saudi Arabia with maps, directions and deliveries.
Speaking to press, Sheldrick said that the what3words app is a location reference system based on a global grid of 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares in which each square has a pre-assigned, fixed and unique 3-word address.
“ More accurate than a postcode, easier to remember and share than coordinates, what3words is helping to improve addressing for the 4 billion people across the globe who are unable to get deliveries or receive aid and unable to exercise their rights as citizens,” said Sheldrick.
«If you›re ordering a pizza to your home, if you›re getting a package delivered from something you›ve bought online, if you want to get a taxi to somewhere; we want you to be able to put in a three-word address just as if you were putting in something else, but knowing that it›s far more accurate and far easier, and just works wherever you are in the world,» he said.
With each new language – Arabic, English, Spanish, German, Russian, Italian, French, Turkish, and Portuguese are all available – each square is assigned an additional name.
Thus, by entering any of these three-word combinations into the what3words app or website, you will be presented with a specific location for the three-meter square rather than an address center point as on most mapping platforms.
He added “telling people three simple words is much easier than giving a full address and a long explanation of how to find a precise location. People at festivals or at parks or at schools, for example, will be able to pinpoint the exact location of their location.”
Eng. Al-Qawasmi said “we are glad to be introducing this innovation here in Saudi Arabia, particularly as we see increasing numbers of big demands by local companies. We are confident that our cooperation will be a successful one.”
“what3words has already shown its usefulness in many countries and we are definitely convinced that the people in Saudi Arabia which is considered as a fast-growing online marketplace, will be able through this new app to make the country a more efficient, less frustrating and safer place,” he said.
what3words gives every place in the world an easy-to-share, easy-to-find address, thanks to an algorithm and a global grid of 3mx3m squares where each square is identified by a fixed and unique 3-word address. The what3words API is integrated into businesses, apps & services across the world. It works across all platforms and devices, in multiple languages, and offline.
