Send me the address via Waze! It’s the recurring expression among ticos today to avoid dealing with “addresses a la tica” (previous articles on the subject)

Waze, the star tool in Costa Rica

With 500,000 active members, San Jose is the third-largest Latin American city to use Waze, just below Mexico City (Mexico) and Sao Paulo (Brazil), which are much bigger and more populous cities than Costa Rica’s tiny capital.

According to Flavia Sasaki, in charge of business development in Latin America for the app, ticos in San Jose travel 25 million kilometers a month and make some 250,000 reports or alerts every month! That’s an impressive statistic compared to the big countries, and with a remarkable growth rate. And in less than a year, has almost doubled the number of active users and tripled the number of alerts. But why is this app so successful on Costa Rican soil?

How Waze in Costa Rica made itself indispensable

Flavia Sasaki takes two approaches. The first is that ticos have a particularly collaborative culture, they love technology and are very social. The second, more curious, is that Costa Rica has one weakness (its address system), Waze has turned it into a strength.

The lack of clear, precise addresses and little knowledge of streets and avenues meant that ticos found Waze the most suitable solution to the problem of finding their way around town in Costa Rica.

“Driving in Costa Rica is a nightmare,” said Eduardo Carvajal in an interview with the Washington Post, about how such a small country could become such an attractive market for Waze. Carvajal is one of 100 Champs, meaning he’s a map publisher in the country. He voluntarily spent over 50 hours a week for almost two years improving the country’s map app.

It’s hard to say whether Waze has changed Costa Rica or Costa Rica has changed Waze. Flavia assures us that the Costa Rican phenomenon is one of mutual learning.

“Champs ticos have adapted Waze to the specific needs of Costa Rica. They’ve found a way to adapt an existing technology for their own culture. For us, this is incredible! In other countries, it was easier for our developers to create the maps because we knew the names of the streets and avenues. Here in Costa Rica, people don’t know or use them. As a result, the help of the volunteer Champs and editors changed the whole infrastructure of Waze in Costa Rica. They brought you a lot in terms of updates and created a Waze that knows how to get to places where ticos go,” explains Flavia enthusiastically!

Some time ago, we told you about the different ways of using GPS technology in Costa Rica. As time goes by, we’ve come to the conclusion that Waze is definitely the best option for traveling in Costa Rica!