It’s been over 2 months since Foursquare launched at SXSW and something strange is happening: My friends are still using it — a lot. Sure, for the service to have real success, it will have to spread well beyond pockets of tech hipsters, but even this success is something we haven’t seen with the majority of location-based social networks so far. But Foursquare’s strategy is smart in that it’s just as much of a game, in which you collect badges and gain mayorships of your favorite local places, as anything else. And now it’s gearing up for a further expansion with an API.
Initially, team hopes this API will be used to build more mobile clients, co-founder Dennis Crowley tells us. Right now, there is only a native app for the iPhone, but he says that there are already a few people working on a native Android app as well. And they envision someone building a BlackBerry app shortly as well. I know that will be music the ears of a lot of my friends who are forced to visit Foursquare’s website from their mobile browsers, which is a less than ideal experience right now.
Crowley also says that someone has already used the APIs to build a desktop client on Adobe AIR.
As for the iPhone app, version 1.2 has just been submitted for approval to the App Store. As we know, that’s always a crapshoot, but assuming it gets approved in relatively short order, there will be a lot more cities the service will be available in. The team also recently rolled out a way to submit your own badges.
But the recent news that most interests me has to be how some cities have establishments that are acknowledging mayorships. You can a mayorship in Foursquare basically by being the person who checks in there most often (on different days). One bar in LA, Good Hurt, is giving away a free beer to the “mayor” every time they come in! Another place in Denver is giving away free lunches to the mayor, and some bar in Brooklyn has a blackboard which they write the mayor’s name on, Crowley tells us.
He says that the team is thinking about ways to work with more establishments to offer these sorts of deals. It’s really a pretty ingenious idea for both the service and the establishment, as it drives usage of both. It’s sort of like what some brands are using Twitter for, but the location aspect is particularly interesting and could be much more targeted. And yes, that could even eventually blossom into business model.
But basically, I just want some San Francisco bars to acknowledge my mayorships and give me a free beer. That’s my business model.
[photo: flickr/a4gpa]
They need more areas with more destinations pronto. I live in Orange County, and apart from being the only person using it here, I have to type in every one of my destinations because they only have about 3 listed places for the entire county. Three problems: 1. entered destinations don’t count towards anything and 2. i can’t be mayor of any of them 3. orange county is probably at the bottom of any list of areas to add so I need them to get through all of those first so they can get to Orange County as well.
Morgan
(aka Mayor of John Wayne Airport)
Not necessarily true. If you visit the Foursquare website you can add places anywhere, regardless of them being in one of the listed cities. Then, when you check in there you will get points and mayorships. Trust me, I’ve added dozens of places in Clifton NJ and am now the mayor of most
I know with the 1.2 iphone app a bunch of cities are being added, but for places in existing cities, like Mike said, that might be mostly up to you to add them. I think if you do that though, they will count towards things (at least that’s how it works up in SF), just be sure you’re checking in at the right times (not during the day on weekdays, you don’t get points for that).
awesome – thanks guys. i’m a big foursquare fan (played a ton at southby) and am excited to rule over the OC.
<3 foursquare
what happen to the issue with them reusing code from the service they sold to google?
The business model I’ve suggested in many conversations about Foursquare with friends is as follows.
1. Give all venues a basic view into Foursquare venue level stats (current mayor, anonymous data otherwise – things like # of repeat visits, # of new visits etc). Probably with a premium model for venues with lots of Foursquare user visits and a desire to use it (but perhaps not, see my point 2)
2. Offer, but don’t give away for free, to allow venues to make Foursquare specific offers ON CHECK-IN, based on rules. i.e. “You just won mayor – come get a Free Beer” or “We see this is your first time here, mention the code FourSquare at the bar for a free (small) beer…” or “You’ve checked in five times, have a Free Beer”
And charge the venues for this. It is advertising but the ultimate in opt-in advertising – venue to people who are there already & who have just told a 3rd party that specific fact. Large venues, such as a Mall could have multiple or even more complex rules.
3. As in the case of a larger venue, like say the Westfield Mall, FourSquare could also work closely with them to ensure that all stores & areas of the mall were available on Foursquare (which itself is a form of advertising as people browse “nearby places”)
All good ideas, but I don’t see foursquare implementing the pay-to-play idea until they have enough users.
note I’m not suggesting that FourSquare charge users – just that they charge venues to advertise to those users & that they give away to venues usage data & stats (the insights of which can really help many small & large businesses – did #s go up after running ad campaigns somewhere for example, or handing out flyers, changing signage/offers etc)
Think of it as customer loyalty cards w/aspects of a VIP program, but across lots of places instead of requiring customers keep track of many cards & punchcards – cafes, bars, nightclubs all see like immediate great targets & perhaps also large venues such as Westfield centres.
Each venue probably wouldn’t pay a lot per month – perhaps on a per offer presented basis or some monthly minimum, but in the aggregate that could add up very nicely for FourSquare
@morgan, the big UX change in iPhone ver 1.2 is that it let’s you add venues from the phone… so when you check into “Jimmy’s Pizza” and it’s not in the database it (a) prompts you to add it (b) awards you +5 for your efforts and (c) allows you to be crowded mayor / earn badges etc off it.
@MG, at least 8 new cities with ver 1.2 launches (hustling to make squeeze some more in there too)
@shannon, you’re onto us (esp with Idea #2 which we’ve been thinking about a lot recently)
thx for the feedback! -d
I wrote about their business model opportunity in mediapost a little while back: http://www.medi...;art_aid=102594
The summation of that article is that leadgen for nightlife is a large opportunity in a technically unsophisticated market and 4sq has a good chance to bridge the gap.
Good stuff Tyler.
I use these often but I’d actually like the features to go away cause it’s too tempting.
1. “hiding your whereabouts” It’s dumb and defeats the purpose.
2. “manual search” or just keep it but only let me search in the next .5 miles cause too many people hack it to check in to faux places just for points.
Just started using Foursquare, and I’m really enjoying it, but what’s to keep some from gaming check-ins to reap mayorial rewards?
People game it all the time, most often by putting their apartment complex as a destination. Obviously this will need to be addressed if the points ever come to mean anything…
Until then, I’m enjoying the ATL beta.
Releasing API this early in the game is sure sign that their usage is declining and that they are running out of ideas for their consumer experience. It is a great failure pattern for startups. Launch consumer app, go live few months, usage declines, release API, nobody uses it…
If you have such a statement to make then why don’t you identify yourself with a website or twitter? Surely someone as smart as you would have an interest in consulting for all the declining startups.
@Duke, I disagree. They don’t have the resources to do everything they want to do, so opening an API allows other devs to fill the gap (i.e. for things like blackberry app).
Saw the guys on Monday in NYC, and I assure you, they are not running out of ideas. Can’t comment about the usage, but I doubt it’s declining -this thing is very addicting. They’ve been purposely trying to lay low for a bit – I guess with TC mention that’s all over now.
@Adam – “Off the Grid” is the best! We use it for meetings / dates / dinner… any place where you don’t want random people popping in to say hi (which happens often in NYC). “Off the grid” lets you get credit for being somewhere (points / badge) without having to give up your exact location.
@KyNam – True, people do game it (we had to build some cheating filters to curb this) but since points don’t translate into any type of rewards (yet) we don’t have to the police it too heavily. In the future we may do some GPS filtering on checkins (or even limit rewards like coupons, etc to those who can verify their location with GPS enabled phones)
@Duke – Ha, I wish we had run out of ideas… there’d be a lot less work to do.
Releasing API is more about realizing we can’t possibly build everything that users want with our two person team – Android app, BB app, etc – and allowing others to play with our dataset to see what they come up with. First version of API will be rather limited (reproducing basic functionality you see in iPhone version), but an API for scoring / points / badges, etc. should make things a lot more interesting.
new ideas please………
Anybody mentioned free beer?