I have never been a big fan of Foursquare.
For one, the idea of broadcasting my location seems strange. Foursquare’s flagship check-in feature struck me as an attack against the last bastion of personal privacy.
The other big problem with Foursquare was there haven’t been enough benefits from using the service. Yes, you can become the mayor of this and that, and collect badges for various activities, but after awhile the novelty disappears.
And while getting a discount for checking in is a good thing, it is far from compelling given the work involved.
Amid my skepticism, Foursquare’s user base has grown to 10 million and it recently raised another $50-million in venture capital. So it begs the question about whether Foursquare has found its mojo. Has it finally become a business as opposed to an interesting start-up trying to leverage location-based technology?
Foursquare’s new stature is perhaps best exemplified by its growing partnership with American Express, which combines Amex’s credit cards and Foursquare’s location-based offers. Amex members can link their cares to Foursquare accounts to automatically capitalize on retailer deals without using coupons or special codes. All the Foursquare user/Amex member does is check-in.
The partnership addresses a few key issues. First, Foursquare becomes easier to use because users no longer have to worry about checking in, and then having to show the merchant their discount code. By eliminating “grit” within the process, Foursquare is a much more attractive option. Second, it provides enough “carrots” to make Foursquare worth investing the time and effort to join.
In hindsight, Foursquare might claim that deals such as Amex are the culmination of a long-term strategy that is now starting to materialize. All the legwork done over the past couple of years in getting people to join Foursquare is now paying off as location-based services become more mainstream and their benefits start to emerge.
At the same time, you could argue Foursquare got lucky. It managed to attract enough users and, as important, enough financing to give it enough time for a business model and business partners to appear on the scene.
Regardless of whether Foursquare had a master plan or just got lucky, the company seems to have established itself as a viable social media player.
Foursquare has been one of those social media “baubles” that are shiny and glittery but, for whatever reason, has never been wildly embraced despite a lot of attention and more than $15-million of venture capital.
In theory, Foursquare and location-based services should be all the rage these days within social media.
