Welcome to Google Street View, Indonesia.
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An underwater panoramic camera surveys a reef in Indonesia. Image: Catlin Seaview Survey
Google launched Street View in Indonesia on Thursday, allowing users to see panoramic cityscapes and underwater views of the country's striking coral reefs.
With a population of nearly 250 million, Indonesia is Google's biggest market in Asia thus far. The project was announced in partnership with Indonesia's Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy in 2012 and took two years to develop in an effort to boost tourism.
Image: Google Street View
As Indonesia's Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Mari Pangestu explained the partnership with Google in 2012:
Tourism is such an important contributor to Indonesia's economy and with the help of features like Google Maps, we hope to promote sustainable tourism by giving people a whole new way to experience Indonesia," she said. "We believe this mapping technology will have many different uses —allowing tourists to check out hotels before arriving, make travel plans and arrange meeting points.
Street View is now up and running in Indonesia's four biggest cities: Jakarta, Bogor, Surabaya and Denpasar. Based on user feedback, the search giant may expand its service to other cities in the country.
The Street View expansion into Indonesia includes stunning views of underwater reefs at Komodo National Park, taken with special panoramic cameras as part of Google's ongoing partnership with Catlin Global Reef Record.
Google first launched underwater views through Street View Oceans last year, and most recently expanded its underwater imagery to the Florida Keys.
The company occasionally runs into privacy roadblocks when expanding to other countries, as it did in Greece. Because of this, it worked closely with Indonesian officials to launch the new project.
Google Street View is already operating in several Asian countries, including Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore and Thailand. It's also available in more than 57 countries around the world.
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