Sometimes a business opportunity begins with something as ordinary as a map
7 Business Opportunities Created by the UN’s New Map Decision
How a change in geographic representation could create new markets for software, education, data, and digital content
A map projection sounds like an unusually boring place to look for a business opportunity. Yet one recent decision at the United Nations could create demand for new software, educational products, data tools, publishing services, and digital content built around how the world is represented. Africa is one of the clearest examples of the problem because the continent appears much smaller on the familiar Mercator projection than it actually is, but the business implications extend far beyond Africa.
On September 4, 2026, the UN General Assembly voted 164 to 1, with six abstentions, in favor of a resolution encouraging the use of more accurate equal-area map projections, including Equal Earth. The resolution is not a global order to replace every existing map. It is a recommendation that could encourage governments, schools, publishers, technology companies, and other organizations to reconsider how they represent geographic size.
Whenever an established system starts changing, someone usually has to build the tools that make the change possible.
The obvious question is not whether the world needs another map. It is what businesses could be built around the growing demand for more accurate geographic information.
1. A True-Size Map Comparison Tool
Imagine a website where anyone can select two countries and immediately compare their actual land areas.
Type in “Africa and Europe,” and the tool shows both using an equal-area projection. Select “Greenland and Africa,” and the visual difference becomes obvious. Compare Nigeria with France, India with the United States, or China with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The content possibilities are enormous. Interactive quizzes could ask users to guess which country is larger. A game could challenge users to arrange countries by actual size. Social media buttons could automatically generate shareable comparisons.
The business could make money through advertising, premium features, educational subscriptions, sponsorships, or licensing the technology to publishers. People love discovering that something they assumed was true was wrong. A website built around that curiosity could turn geography into entertainment.
2. A Map API for Developers
The more interesting opportunity may sit behind the consumer-facing website.
Developers building educational platforms, news websites, data visualization tools, travel applications, dashboards, and geographic products often need maps but do not want to become experts in cartography.
A simple API could allow developers to generate accurate equal-area maps, compare country sizes, highlight regions, create continent visualizations, or produce geographic graphics programmatically.
The Equal Earth projection itself is freely available, so the business would not be selling access to the projection. The value would come from making the technology easier to integrate, customize, scale, and maintain.
A developer could call an API, provide a list of countries, select a visualization, and receive a ready-to-use map.
The business model could be straightforward: free for small projects, paid plans for publishers, higher tiers for companies with heavy API usage, and enterprise contracts for organizations running large geographic applications. The map is free, yes. The infrastructure around it does not have to be.
3. Geography SaaS for Schools
Education could become one of the biggest markets created by this change.
The UN resolution specifically encourages schools and educational organizations to consider more accurate map projections. Some governments have already indicated that educational materials could be updated. Togo, for example, has said it plans to update school geography materials following the UN decision. (aljazeera.com)
A geography SaaS platform could give teachers interactive maps for classroom use. Students could compare countries by area, population, climate, economic output, or geography. Quizzes could automatically generate questions, while teachers could create assignments without downloading dozens of separate resources.
The platform could eventually expand beyond map size into history, colonial borders, trade routes, languages, population movements, natural resources, climate, urbanization, and economic development.
A product that starts with one map projection could eventually become a complete digital geography curriculum.
4. Map Auditing Software
There are probably millions of maps sitting inside textbooks, websites, corporate presentations, reports, news articles, and educational materials.
Most organizations do not know which projection those maps use. A company could build software that scans a document or website, detects geographic maps, identifies the projection where possible, and flags cases where an equal-area representation would be more appropriate.
The system could then suggest alternatives. A publisher uploading a geography textbook might receive a report showing which maps distort relative land area. A media company could scan its graphics library. A university could review teaching materials. A consulting firm could check maps appearing in client reports.
The business model could be subscription-based, with plans for individuals, publishers, schools, media companies, and large organizations. The customer is not really buying a map. They are buying confidence that geographic information is being presented appropriately.
5. A Geographic Data Visualization Platform
The map conversation does not have to stop at physical land area.
Once people start asking whether the world is being represented accurately, they can start asking how other information about countries is represented.
Population.
GDP.
Internet access.
Energy production.
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Education.
Healthcare.
Trade.
Migration.
Climate.
Natural resources.
Urbanization.
A platform could allow users to select any country and compare it with countries elsewhere across dozens of indicators using interactive visualizations.
Journalists could embed the charts in articles. Teachers could use them in classrooms. Researchers could download datasets. Companies could use them in presentations and market research.
The platform could offer free public charts while charging for advanced datasets, APIs, downloads, commercial licenses, and custom dashboards. The opportunity moves from cartography into data infrastructure.
6. The Map Could Become a Content Business
Not every opportunity requires software.
The UN vote itself has created a powerful curiosity hook.
“Why Does Greenland Look So Big?”
“How Many Times Can Greenland Fit Inside Africa?”
“Can the United States, China and India Fit Inside Africa?”
“10 Countries That Look Completely Different on a World Map.”
“Why Maps Make Some Countries Look Bigger Than They Really Are.”
These are natural subjects for YouTube videos, newsletters, podcasts, social media accounts, documentaries, books, quizzes, and educational channels.
The opportunity in the subject can expand beyond Africa.
Maps can explain why Russia looks enormous, why Alaska appears disproportionately large, why South America is often underestimated, or why different projections exist in the first place.
The creator does not need to sell maps. The creator can sell attention. That attention can then be monetized through advertising, sponsorships, memberships, books, courses, licensing, speaking engagements, or digital products.
7. An “Accurate World” Data and Education Brand
Perhaps the biggest opportunity is not correcting the size of Africa but correcting the way geographic information is presented more broadly.
A company could build a digital platform dedicated to accurate, visually engaging information about countries and regions around the world.
How large is each country?
Which cities are growing fastest?
Where are the largest technology hubs?
Which countries export the most music?
Where are the world’s major trade routes?
How many people live in each region?
Where are the largest universities?
How have national borders changed?
Which resources are produced where?
Which companies operate globally?
The platform could combine maps, datasets, interactive charts, timelines, articles, videos, educational materials, and APIs.
Its customers could include schools, media companies, researchers, publishers, travel companies, businesses, and ordinary people who simply want better information.
The Opportunity Is Bigger Than the Map
There is now a growing conversation around how geographic information is represented, how it is taught, and how technology companies and publishers visualize the world. Businesses do not always come from the problem itself. Sometimes they come from the gap between what people currently do and what they are beginning to expect instead. The UN has helped put that gap on the agenda. Now someone has to build the products that fill it.
