Those boffins of the Silicon Valley have obviously been at it again trying to crack the next in thing in the social media world. And it seems that a few geeks have possibly come developed the next craze with all of the buzz currently surrounding a new concept called FOURSQUARE!
What is it?
Foursquare is a location sharing service that mashes up social networks, maps and other features, then combines them with a rewards program for “checking in” at various locations and businesses, such as bars, restaurants and retailers.
Foursquare globally and locally
Since March, Foursquare has acquired 150,000 users and is apparently growing at a rate of 45 – 50% per month. In Australia, Foursquare is currently ranked in position 1,322 on Alexa. However despite that the site is driving some traffic from the local market, it seems Foursquare is still in its infancy. Taking a test drive in my local city of Melbourne, 3 out of the 4 places I wanted to add to my to do list were not listed – making it a little time consuming to build a list of things I am interested in doing. In addition Foursquare is currently only geared up for the cities of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne – alienating key cities in Australia. Despite its current limited availability and use however, I wouldn’t underestimate its potential for sizable growth in our local market. My assumption for growth is based on Australians obsession with social media. We are so obsessed that Australia is ranked as one of the largest consumers of social media per capita in the world. This combined with our ever increasing thirst for internet access via mobile devices and social nature will drive take up of FourSquare.
FourSquare’s Revenue Model
In 2009 FourSquare did not generate any revenue. However unlike Twitter it seems as the sites premise is based on location it will open up several opportunities for location based advertising, along with targeted consumer promotions based on interests. In addition to the advertising opportunities available to FourSquare I firmly believe Google will make a play to buy this site in the coming 12 – 18 months. From Google’s perspective the site offers 3 strong propositions for Google to cement their stronghold in certain digital areas which include – local search, mobile and of course social media.
To visit FourSquare go to –www.foursquare.com
Do you think FourSquare will be one of the next big social media tools? Share your thoughts below.
When foursquare was first released I found it very addictive. Check-in, earn points, first time bonus, travel bonus etc - if only I could cash in those points for threadless t-shirts!!!
Here are the things that I like about Foursquare:
* the Rewards Program, ‘Mayor’ and Badge features add a ‘fun’ factor to social media not found in the likes of Twitter
* it integrates nicely with Twitter, within a few minutes you can be Foursquaring with all your Twitter peeps. Downside, the auto-posts to Twitter have annoyed a few Twitter users
* the Tips offered by nearby venues and businesses, once utilized is a feature that I will make good use of - and hopefully pick up some discounts/specials from time to time (early adopter rewards)
* the Foursquare team appear to have a well thought-out roll-out plan, the application appears to be regularly changing for the better
Congrats to the Foursquare team for realising a gap in the market and producing a largely useful and fun(!) location based social media app.
4sq was actually a part of google previously, why would they buy it back again?
perhaps they didnt realise what they had?!
agree with Location based advertising tie in. with the push notifications, its quite good. i really like the tips part of it and seeing who else has been there. it helps you discover new venues.
also, i reckon 4sq should limit your ability to add and check in if you are not with geographical range.
to me, the best aspect of it is the gameplay and the badges.