Apple finally made some moves into the local mapping wars last week with the purchase of Locationary, which helps find business locations, and HopStop, which provides transit maps and travel suggestions.

We’ll go out on a limb and predict that Apple will want to flesh out its map products with other map- focused media, such as map-based classifieds (Antengo) or coupons and deals (8Coupons).

Apple, meanwhile, has downplayed the significance of the deals, saying it often purchases ‘small’ companies.” The reality, however, is that both companies play key roles in the emerging world of mobile-oriented, map-based advertising and promotions.

One observation we’d make: while the companies bring real value to Apple, they were going to have a hard time scaling on their own, and also didn’t have many options besides Apple, Google , Nokia (HERE) and AOL (Mapquest). Google’s purchase of Waze for $1.1 Billion was driven by the same dynamics (although Waze is arguably more of a popular Web phenomenon along the lines of an Instagram, which is why it got such a big deal).

Of the two companies purchased last week by Apple, we’ve especially been following HopStop, the #4 transportation map behind Google, Mapquest and Waze. The company has moved to worked to develop the scale it needed for advertisers (and for Apple) when it moved beyond its New York base a couple of years ago to spread to 145 markets in six countries, with a major push set for Asia this year. Its transit maps also, conveniently, were fully integrated with Apple Maps.

CEO Joe Meyer always stressed that he had higher aspirations to get beyond the transit maps its best known for. Last November, non-subway maps for biking, taxis and walking, were up about 1000 percent, helped considerably, at all times, by crowd sourcing telling when roads were closed, train tracks flooded, etc.

Hopstop’s revenue opportunities were always limited. It got major national accounts such as JetBlue, Delta, Macys, Dunkin Donuts, JC Penney, Ikea, ZipCar and major tourism boards and Convention Centers. But the site was a small one. In May 2012, it finally decided to rely on outsourced sales from Travora Media (formerly Travel Ad Network) . “They have the arms and legs to sell ads,” said Meyer.

Here’s a post from last year about why Apple has to get Maps right. And here’s a recent closeup profile of HopStop.

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HopStop, a directions portal that competes in the segment against an ever-building Google Maps, today announced its plans to fight the Big G, including new markets, content partners and features. The 20-person site, which gets about one-third of its traffic from destination and SEO traffic, and one-third from affiliate partners, has added 20 markets and is now serving a total of 57 markets (including four markets outside North America: London, Paris, Moscow and St. Petersburg).

The company’s partnerships — new and old — include hourly car rentals from Connect by Hertz with integrated driving directions, real-time booking capability via Limos.com, daily deals from Groupon, local events from Zvents and business reviews via Yelp. According to CEO Joe Meyer, the revenue model with each partner varies, and includes CPM, CPC and affiliate sales. The company is operating profitably and not actively raising funds, he adds.

HopStop has also added new social media tools, including a feature that enables users to share travel plans with friends. Other features include walking directions and intercity travel via Amtrak and bus routes. Meyer says that the company’s biggest defense against Google and other competitors is its passionate, social media-driven user base, with 37 percent of users using the site 25 times a month or more. Seventy-two percent used the site within 24 hours of their last use. (We provided a full profile of the company in May 2010.)

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Local consumers are presumably in buying mode when they are researching where to have dinner, attend an event or go to the movies. How about when they are researching directions to get there?

In fact, mass transit directions in themselves represent a host of opportunities for local services and advertising (along with parking garage info). Companies engaged in collecting, sorting and leveraging mass transit directions include HopStop, Google Transit, and Urban Mapping. Most large public transit agencies have also developed an infrastructure for mass transit and walking directions.

HopStop was the first service out of the gate. The five-year-old, 12-person company is now providing transit and walking directions in 16 metros throughout the U.S. and Europe, and plans rapid expansion in Q3 and Q4.

During HopStop’s early days, its directions weren’t always reliable (note: amassing and normalizing mass transit data is no easy task). These days, however, its directions tend to be very good. A team of us here at BIA/Kelsey recently relied on HopStop-powered directions to get around New York and New Jersey, with excellent results.

Besides mass transit and walking directions, HopStop is also providing information about alternative transportation options, such as car sharing and limo/sedan reservation capability (via partnerships with ConnectByHertz and LimoRes). It also estimates cab fares, which is an especially useful feature.

CEO Joe Meyer, a former eBay and Quigo executive who came on board last April, says the quality of the service and its scalable routing engine are close to where they need to be. He notes that it has been quite an effort to collect data from hundreds of transit authorities — including, for instance, 30 transit agencies in the New York area alone. The service also enhances and improves the data via a user feedback system, with user improvements coming in via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and SMS/chat.

Roughly half HopStop’s traffic comes directly to its site. Other users come in via local media affiliates, which either work directly with the site or use its open API. Not surprisingly, the highest traffic day part comes during regular business hours, with half the transit queries pertaining to points of interest such as local events, restaurants, museums and tourist attractions.

Other searches pertain to business-centric locations such as office buildings and conference centers. Meyer says they are all highly suited for contextual and geotargeted advertising.

What’s really been evolving rapidly is HopStop’s utility as a mobile service. Over the past two years, HopStop has launched an iPhone app, a WAP site and advanced test messaging capabilities (Desk-to-SMS and SMS-to-SMS). The company has recently recruited Scott Margolis, the former director of mobile for FoxNews.com and FoxBusiness.com, to head up it’s mobile initiatives.

While desktop directions still account for the majority of usage, smartphone usage is growing at a much faster rate. HopStop now has plans to develop mobile apps for Android, Nokia/Symbian and BlackBerry.

In terms of ad revenues, the site provides free listings to local merchants, using a homegrown database as well as one populated by CitySearch. Most of HopStop’s revenues, however, come from national advertisers, including Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, CitiBank, CapitalOne, Duane Reade, CVS, Monster, CareerBuilder, Delta, JetBlue and The New York Times.

These advertisers typically utilize a mixture of display and text ads, which HopStop’s geo ad-server targets down to a street address level. “It is all about hyperlocal” for such advertisers, says Meyer.

Although HopStop asserts rapid growth, Meyer is upfront about the challenge posed by Google Transit (which is tightly integrated into Google Maps). In his mind, Google Transit is an overly rigid solution. For instance, it only accepts data from transit agencies that conform to its specifications. Conversely, HopStop takes more of an open approach, he says. It accepts scheduling and routing data in every format, giving users many more routing options, as well as more accurate directions.

“It’s a double-edged sword having Google as your primary competitor,” says Meyer. He adds that Google’s entrance into local transit navigation validates the need for direction searches, and their commercial viability.

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