PlanPlus - Evolution of the First Serbian Digital Map

Almost 30 years have passed since the day when the PlanPlus project was launched in the basement of a house in Charlie Chaplin Street in Belgrade's Palilula district.

A potentially great idea of creating an interactive digital city map started modestly and quietly as a purely local story, without particularly high expectations. However, its originality and usefulness quickly became a real revelation among our fellow citizens.

Over time, this brilliant idea evolved into a highly ambitious project that grew from a map of the capital city into a digital map and business directory for the entire country (including Montenegro at that time). It became synonymous with street and facility search in all cities of Serbia and a unique brand that has been living and continuously developing for three full decades!

Let's remember how it all started...

The Beginning...

"The idea emerged in October '95 quite by accident," recalls Jovan Živadinović, co-founder and project leader. "During a break at a scientific seminar held at the Sava Center, an interactive model of the venue caught our attention. By clicking on the name of one of the many shops, it would light up, allowing you to easily find your way to it. That's how, to put it simply, the initial idea of creating a digital city map was born, offering users the shortest route to a specific location in the city. Some more advanced options were science fiction at that time."

By creating software and digitizing content from tourist maps obtained from local authorities with whom they established cooperation in the following months, Jovan and his colleague and friend Branko created the first complete street network in Belgrade.

"The first digital map of Belgrade only included the street network and a few important landmarks in the city. At that time, Windows, as an operating system, was still in its infancy and relatively rare. Therefore, the first maps were created in MS-DOS. However, the storage of those maps was only possible on floppy disks, and due to the limited memory capacity of the disks, you needed about ten of them just to install the map of Belgrade, which was impractical even back then. Therefore, we never commercialized that first version of the map."

PlanPlus before Google

The first edition of the PlanPlus map on CD was created in 1998. At a time when the term Google itself was completely unknown, and the existence of Google Maps was not even on the horizon, Belgrade had its own digital city plan. It was a time when owning a computer was a privilege, when the internet was not as prevalent and accessible as it is today, internet advertising did not exist, and the concept of social media was absolutely unimaginable.

"PlanPlus first entered the market at the 1998 Technical Fair. We had our own booth, and people approached with curiosity and interest in our product. We burned the discs on the spot and packed them on demand, so you had to wait about twenty minutes to get the original CD. The CD burners at the time were quite slow, but we didn't have mass production yet, so it wasn't a big problem," recalls Jovan.

However, it was clear that PlanPlus had serious potential. The product needed to be marketed and presented to the wider public. That's when Aleksandra entered the picture.

"A friend showed me a flyer with a brief description of the project. A digital map of Belgrade on a CD, at that time it was a real marvel! I remember the slogan 'Your city in the palm of your hand' printed on the beautiful cover. I immediately liked the idea, found it very interesting and appealing, and decided to get involved in the business, even though I'm a technologist by profession and naturally don't have much contact with software."

Bombing and Split in 1999...

Initially, Aleksandra was responsible for promotion, software sales, and marketing, but as the project "grew" and the map became richer in content, responsibilities and obligations increased. The PlanPlus map was becoming increasingly popular.

However, just as the project was gaining momentum, the state of war in the country in 1999 halted the development of PlanPlus. In the difficult months of general turmoil in the country, a digital map was certainly not a priority. The small team disbanded, and the project was understandably put on hold.

"It even seemed like everything would be forgotten," recalls Aleksandra, "But Jovan still looked towards the future and continued working on PlanPlus. He gathered us again in 2000, and soon we continued where we had, by circumstances, been forced to stop a year earlier."

The new beginning also brought a new, improved version of the software under the slogan "PlanPlus MMI," and in that same year, the first version of PlanPlus appeared on the internet.

"The content of the map in the second version was supplemented with detailed plans of Čačak, Kruševac, Niš, and Novi Sad," explains Jovan, "and we packaged the entire software on mini discs that had just appeared on our market at that time. It was a fairly sophisticated and attractive edition for that time, but we didn't have a developed sales network. We were among the first to introduce a certain type of protection against unauthorized copying of CD content, with a periodic software validation system, but in the general flood of piracy in those years, we didn't fare well. Nevertheless, that was a kind of recognition for us that we had a good product - people wanted the program, they liked it, it was useful."

Best-selling software in Serbia

Over time, the CD version of PlanPlus began to sell in hundreds and thousands of copies, and the buyers were people of various profiles and generations, individuals and large companies, map enthusiasts, and technology enthusiasts. The popularity was evident and progressive; it was necessary to harness that potential and commercialize the story.

"I was living in Gornji Milanovac in 2002 when I saw an advertisement in the newspaper in which a Belgrade company was looking for a sales representative," says Vesna, the longest-serving salesperson at Contrast. "I had never heard of Contrast or PlanPlus before, but I decided to apply and give it a try. I remember coming to the capital, feeling nervous, expecting a big company and many employees, but I met a group of young people, creatives, and enthusiasts, who also had an excellent product that I instantly fell in love with. The rest is history; our sales team has thousands of clients, from the largest companies and corporations in the country to small family businesses."

In the last 15 years, the most responsible person for reflecting reality into the digital format of PlanPlus maps has been Vlada.

"I joined Contrast as a kid, at the age of 20. As someone who was fascinated by computers and grew up with a computer, I was familiar with PlanPlus, I used it, and at one point, I wanted to work on it. I remember my first job was cycling around Belgrade with printed maps on A4 sheets, noting one-way streets, no-turn zones, recording new street names, and so on."

Vlada joined the company at a time when the new version of the map, "PlanPlus 2003," was being prepared. For the first time, this version offered not only the basic function of finding addresses and public facilities but also the option of navigation, providing users with the choice of the shortest route by car, public transportation lines, or walking. The content was expanded, and this edition included detailed maps of 14 cities in Serbia. PlanPlus became a more serious and demanding project in every sense.

"Vectorizing roads from topographic maps was a lengthy and somewhat tedious task," recalls Vlada, "but that way we obtained the complete network of main roads in Serbia, which appeared in the next CD version under the slogan 'PlanPlus 2006 - Serbia in the digital world.' In the following years, my colleague Ivan and I traveled through the country in an official car equipped with appropriate devices, GPS, and a laptop. We literally drove on every road in the country, recorded and 'drew' the entire road network of Serbia and Montenegro."

iGO, TomTom, Here...

The most comprehensive map of Serbia and Montenegro that existed at that time caught the attention of some global companies in the field of car navigation. As a result, the PlanPlus map found its way into numerous devices, cars, and vehicles that used applications like iGO, Mio, Mireo, and others. During those years, PlanPlus also collaborated with global giants in the field of car navigation, such as TomTom and Here, with whom it continues to have successful partnerships today.

"That was definitely the golden period of PlanPlus, a time when our map was at its peak of popularity because there wasn't adequate competition yet," says Jovan, "Google was just starting to develop maps, and other companies followed suit. Of course, having your own satellite in space accelerates that development. With all that, today, the availability of the internet and its usage has multiplied compared to ten years ago, and information is readily available everywhere. Nevertheless, our map is still competitive and more accurate and up-to-date in certain details compared to others. Our advantage is that we are here, locally," Jovan emphasizes.

One of the most popular portals in the country

It was precisely this global trend of internet growth and accessibility that questioned the relevance of the CD version of PlanPlus. Therefore, that practice was definitively discontinued in 2011 with the last CD version, "PlanPlus 10+." Since then, PlanPlus has functioned exclusively as an online service and has transferred its significant popularity to the web. In the selection by the reputable magazine PC Press, it has been chosen several times as the best domestic online service. The definitive "move" to the internet, however, has led to a change in business strategy and a kind of evolution for PlanPlus. As one of the most popular websites in the country, PlanPlus now represents a significant space for advertisers.

"For every company, especially those without their own website or those just starting their business in the Serbian market, it is beneficial to be listed in our directory because thanks to the authority that PlanPlus has as a long-standing brand, they will generally achieve better ranking in internet searches than if they were to appear independently," explains Nikola, an SEO operator at Contrast. "Even for large companies, being listed in the PlanPlus directory is meaningful for their own SEO optimization. The internet is the present and undoubtedly the future, and everything is gradually 'moving' online. The position of a company on Google search or any other search engine can be crucial for its business," Nikola adds.

The growth of the internet and the strengthening competition drive PlanPlus to constantly progress and follow the trends of modern business.

"It's not always easy, but we strive to keep pace with the best," emphasizes Stefan, a long-time programmer at Contrast.

From a company that initially had only two employees, Contrast now has a double-digit number of employees and an even larger network of collaborators. However, the dedication to the project remains the same as on the first day.

"In terms of the number of employees in relation to the size of the project, we are a relatively small company, but perhaps because of that, the feeling and commitment are as if it were a family business," concludes Vlada.