MapQuest stood up to President Donald Trump, and now its app is reaping the rewards.
The “OG of online mapping,” as the company calls itself, announced on Thursday that it would not change the name of Lake Ontario on its maps to Lake America, despite Trump’s executive order directing the U.S. Department of the Interior to update the lake’s name in the U.S. geographic naming service. As a result, MapQuest’s mobile app downloads soared, sending the iOS app to the No. 4 position on the U.S. App Store’s Top Charts for apps (not including games) as of Monday morning on the U.S. east coast.
MapQuest also reached the No. 8 position overall in the U.S. App Store across both apps and games, and it became the No. 1 Navigation app in the United States.
In Canada’s App Store, the app reached No. 2 overall as of Sunday evening.
The 30-year-old company remarked that it received “hundreds of thousands” of new downloads since its decision to keep the name Lake Ontario in place, and saw its app’s usage climb to 50 times above its normal levels.
Third-party data from market intelligence provider Sensor Tower confirms the surge, noting that MapQuest saw 184,000 and 162,000 total global and U.S. app downloads during the week beginning August 24, respectively, each representing an increase of more than 10x week-over-week. In the U.S., daily downloads were up 128% day-over-day from August 26 to August 30.
“We took the same approach we did with the Gulf of Mexico: be part of the conversation, and give people an app that keeps the names they’re familiar with,” said Doug Berger, General Manager of MapQuest, in a statement. “Hundreds of thousands of people signaled to us this weekend that we got it right by downloading our app.”
MapQuest also released an online tool that lets you jokingly rename Lake Ontario to whatever you want it to be, then share the results on social media. The company had offered a similar tool last year, after Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Trump’s decision to rename the body of water bordering the U.S and Canada comes as trade talks broke down, leading the U.S. to impose new 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, with Canada poised to retaliate.
On Saturday, Google Maps announced it was complying with Trump’s decision, explaining that it updates Google Maps to reflect the name changes in official government sources. In the U.S., that’s the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). The updated map will only be shown to users in the U.S., while those in Canada will see Lake Ontario, and those outside of the two countries will see both names.
Both Apple Maps and Google Maps previously changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America last year, after Trump issued a similar name-changing executive order.
As of Monday morning, Apple Maps has yet to rename the Great Lake to Lake America and has not issued a statement about its plans.
MapQuest has changed hands several times over the years, having been acquired by AOL shortly after going public. It then ended up with Verizon for a time, as a result of Verizon’s acquisition of AOL. In 2019, Verizon sold MapQuest to internet advertising company System1.
MapQuest’s app has been downloaded 687,000 times worldwide this year so far, up 29% year-over-year, SensorTower estimated. Since 2012, MapQuest has been downloaded 24.4 million times, with 97% of those installs coming from the U.S.
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