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Facebook Places Will Crush Foursquare

pcmag.com

1–10 of 27 posts

Re: Facebook Places Will Crush Foursquare

#2
While I'm no 4sq/gowalla fanboy, to say that Facebook pwns all location based checkins, and "that's a wrap" is a bit premature. Facebook also hosts photos and has made it incredibly easy to upload them, tag them, and share them. However, it is absolutely no replacement for Flickr. Flickr does it better, and continually makes it better.

Foursquare and its contemporaries are very clever on how they get users to use their service. Foursquare has opened up APIs to keep it simple, and their user actions are already syndicated to the Facebook/Twitter. Foursquare has built game and reward mechanics that are genuinely engaging.

My newest startup is in the events/activities space. Facebook also has an events app/module, and it's second rate and barely scratches the surface on both the consumer and provider end of events. I fully plan on leveraging Facebook events to compliment my product. It doesn't have me running for the hills.

This is herd journalism.. the demise of [x] because [Y] has entered the market.

Re: Facebook Places Will Crush Foursquare

#4
Maybe, but I'm not sold yet. Yeah Facebook has 500 million plus users, so even if there's a 1% conversion rate they'll have the same or more users than Foursquare. That's huge, especially because Facebook has a much more diverse audience than Foursquare.

But...I can't help but think about Buzz. Gmail had those 170 million users. Sure Twitter was around, but how could Buzz fail when there was this huge existing audience to use it? But today I don't use Buzz at all, and Twitter around a dozen times a day.

Facebook Places has potential, but it's way too early to think Foursquare will be "crushed"

Re: Facebook Places Will Crush Foursquare

#7
This isn't necessarily the place to bring this up, but I take it I'm not the only one who finds 4sq and pals a bit creepy?

The 'scary' side of social media has long been a favourite topic in the mainstream press - and in this case, I think they might have a mild point. I'm sure that 100% HN users are fully aware of the risks of storing personal info online, and will act accordingly - but so many more web users honestly don't have a clue. I've also heard ad agencies and potential employers talking about tracking 4sq users...and I'm not sure I like that either.

Am I overreacting?

Re: Facebook Places Will Crush Foursquare

#8
post #5

In February, this same publication declared, "Google's Buzz Puts Facebook, Twitter On Notice": http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2359017,00.asp I'm detecting a pattern.

The source article's headline is declaring the war already over.

The article (with a tamer headline) you cited is summarized quite well by the author towards the end with this statement "My gut gives it a 50-50 chance". Not exactly the same type of statement as the former.

Re: Facebook Places Will Crush Foursquare

#9

Maybe, but I'm not sold yet. Yeah Facebook has 500 million plus users, so even if there's a 1% conversion rate they'll have the same or more users than Foursquare. That's huge, especially because Facebook has a much more diverse audience than Foursquare. But...I can't help but think about Buzz. Gmail had those 170 million users. Sure Twitter was around, but how could Buzz fail when there was this huge existing audien…

They key difference I think is that Google accounts or gmail accounts were not used as the hub of social interaction (like Facebook) when Google launched Buzz. All the hipsters had built these huge networks on Twitter and Facebook already and now suddenly had to re-assemble a social network from scratch based on their GMail address.

If history was different and everyone used their Gmail account as their social identity, things would have been different as Twitter would have just been a 'feeder' service like 4sq/Go are now.

Re: Facebook Places Will Crush Foursquare

#10
post #5

In February, this same publication declared, "Google's Buzz Puts Facebook, Twitter On Notice": http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2359017,00.asp I'm detecting a pattern.

The source article's headline is declaring the war already over. The article (with a tamer headline) you cited is summarized quite well by the author towards the end with this statement "My gut gives it a 50-50 chance". Not exactly the same type of statement as the former.

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