StreetEasy switched from Google Maps to OpenStreetMap after calculating Google would cost ~$300k/year; Foursquare also switched

Claim: After Google's 2018 pricing change, real-estate portal StreetEasy moved to OpenStreetMap after calculating Google would cost ~$300,000 a year (VentureBeat). Foursquare switched to OSM / Mapbox in the same window, initially price-driven (TheNextWeb).

Source: https://venturebeat.com/dev/google-maps-api-price-foursquare-streeteasy-openstreetmaps/ ; thenextweb.com.

Confidence: Verified.

Caveat: OSM data is free but the user bears hosting/maintenance; public OSM tile servers are not built for heavy commercial traffic (most route through a provider like Mapbox); coverage and Street View parity vs Google are uneven.

Why this matters for Candid: The standard worked example of R4 — Never rent mission-critical data infrastructure when the vendor can reprice unilaterally; keep the path to a free alternative warm. Most SMBs don't map at StreetEasy scale, but the principle is the same — keep the path to a free alternative warm.