Tmap launches short-form video service, eyes 'mobility lifestyle platform' status

"Tmap is evolving beyond simple navigation into a mobility lifestyle platform."

Tmap has announced its ambition to become a "mobility lifestyle platform" covering users' everyday lives in the AI era. Starting with the launch of a new short-form video feature, the company plans to deepen AI-driven personalization services as it bids to lead the future mobility market. It also unveiled a roadmap to release a personalized conversational AI agent built on data from its roughly 15.5 million monthly users.

Jeon Chang-geun, chief product officer of Tmap Mobility, unveiled the short-form service "Tmap Short-Form" at a media study session held Thursday at Lounge 107 in Jung-gu, Seoul. He said the company would "connect everything from pre-trip discovery and in-trip navigation to post-trip logging and sharing," adding that it would "combine mobility data and content with AI to deliver differentiated experiences and strengthen competitiveness in the mobility market by advancing AI-native services."

The centerpiece of Tmap's mobility lifestyle platform strategy is Tmap Short-Form, a service that lets users share short videos of places they have visited. The company said the feature plays a key role because it accumulates user visit experiences as data, enabling the development of AI-based personalization services.

Tmap highlighted two key advantages of Tmap Short-Form: users can watch short videos and check detailed information about featured locations in one place. When a user spots an appealing spot in a video, they can immediately view reviews, business hours and menu details for that location. They can also save places of interest or get turn-by-turn directions.

Tmap has organized the service's content into three categories: places, driving and lifestyle. The places category covers restaurants, cafes and bakeries, and travel and activity information; the driving category features tips for new drivers and vehicle maintenance, as well as dashcam footage of accident cases. The lifestyle category rounds out the offering with shopping updates — including pop-up store and department store news — along with everyday life advice and humor content. Tmap said the lineup extends the platform's reach well beyond location discovery to encompass driving and daily life more broadly.

Short-form content will be supplied by "Tmap Certified Creators" — creators who meet quality and diversity standards set by the company — as well as by general users. Tmap said it plans to showcase vetted content through this creator program while also allowing any user to freely upload videos.

Content recommendations will also be personalized. At launch, the service will suggest content based on general audience preferences, with plans to incorporate individual user preference data over time to deliver tailored recommendations.

Tmap expects the short-form service launch to broaden its user base. The strategy is to draw in users who have no immediate travel plans by offering content browsing and place discovery, thereby increasing visit frequency. The company said it hopes that a casual short-form viewing session will naturally lead users from checking location details to curating content they like and eventually engaging with other users.

Tmap has also laid out plans to develop a conversational AI agent powered by user data. The company intends to upgrade the service so the AI agent can synthesize reviews, photos and short-form videos to deliver optimal answers to users. Specifically, it plans to launch a conversational agent that recommends travel itineraries — including accommodations and various activities — as well as a voice agent for in-vehicle use. Tmap will also continue refining the personalized discovery experience within its "Where Should I Go?" service using AI and data.

Tmap identified the big data generated by its roughly 15.5 million monthly users as its core competitive advantage in the AI era. Data accumulates as users search for places and leave reviews, and the company said it will feed that data into AI models to improve place recommendations and route guidance. Tmap added that, combined with Tmap Auto — embedded in vehicles from more than 200 automakers — it has built a data foundation spanning both in-vehicle and mobile environments.