Matka.fi (Journey.fi in English) is a handy, nationwide route information service, which, for most part, is funded by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications of Finland. The service provides information on rail connections and walking routes as well as on local transport connections in most of Finland. The service is free to its users.

A little while ago, VTT Technical Research Centre did a study to evaluate the financial value of the service to businesses, commuters and the government. Based on the results of the study, VTT estimates that public transportation companies and the government will make four times more money out of the service than they spent on building the service. The estimated net revenue so far is over 2 million EUR and VTT estimates it to go up to 3 million. Bus companies will make at least 1 million EUR in increased ticket sales, and VR, the national railways, makes about 0.5 million EUR.

I don’t know exactly how VTT made the calculations and ended up with those figures. Of course there’s a chance that their estimates aren’t completely accurate, but VTT is a very well established, major organization; their research work is known worldwide, and so I’m willing to believe that at least most of what they say about the profitability of Matka.fi is true.

I think this is a great example of how a free online service can create real revenues to a wide range of businesses and services. Now they just need to work on the visual look of Matka.fi a bit more.