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Is Foursquare in trouble?

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Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?

#41

Post by yalimkgerger »

jsavimbi wrote: post #37

> Sadly, it lost the battle for my time to TripAdvisor+Lonely Planet when travelling and to Facebook when at home. Wow, talk about being out of touch. Please don't waste time with either of those two products while traveling. There are others out there like Hipmunk, Kayak and Wikitravel, but it's best to find and converse with fellow travelers once you're reached your destination. They'll have more up-to-date insight…

Bingo with the comment "A Game with no winners". :-). Actually, I think Facebook integrated location very nicely to their feature set with their latest mobile UI. I don't think they abandoned it at all. The combination of Tripadvisor+Lonly Planet served me well in my travels. So did Foursquare. But I don't think this alone will make it a viable business.

Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?

#42

Post by JulianMiller520 »

There is a reason only 5% of adults actively use location-based check-in apps. On the whole, foursquare doesn't create enough value for the average adult hence no room in the market for an equal footing competitor (gowalla) http://mashable.com/2011/12/06/adults-use-location-based-app... I think it's easy to get caught up in the fun when you are in an insular, tech-focused group (SXSWi) and every location/person around you is dedicated to using foursquare but at some point you have to stop listening to the "cool kids" hype a product and think about how much you really get out of using it in the real world.

Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?

#43

Post by adrianwaj »

po wrote: post #10

A service like foursquare can be useful to different people in different ways. Some people use it as a personal record, some people use it for discovery, some as a social app, some like the game, etc… Many people might initially come for the game and stay for the deals. For example, when I lived in NYC I used to enjoy the game aspect and knowing where my friends were. When I moved to Tokyo, these weren't that useful…

"What held twitter through (besides tons of investment money) is a core user group that loved the service as it is today. Foursquare has that."

Bitcoin too?

Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?

#44

Post by arnoldwh »

po wrote: post #10

A service like foursquare can be useful to different people in different ways. Some people use it as a personal record, some people use it for discovery, some as a social app, some like the game, etc… Many people might initially come for the game and stay for the deals. For example, when I lived in NYC I used to enjoy the game aspect and knowing where my friends were. When I moved to Tokyo, these weren't that useful…

I think I'd put what Foursquare has done well/not done well into three buckets:

1. Virality - Highly viral product that got shared enough to the point that almost everyone knows about it (in current target demographic). Throw up that Mission Accomplished banner.

2. Engagement: Falls off here. Most early adopters got bored, and it's just now catching on with what I would call the "early majority." This would be fine except they're running through the same cycle of being bored by checkins. Reviews/Radar seems like an attempt to engage their users beyond check-ins, which probably seems more confusing than anything else for the typical early majority user. I think the problem here is that they've lost the "core user group" (aka that bored early adopter) you're talking about...the type of people that would spend time curating lists, putting up great content, and getting a kick out of people checking in to their recommendations.

3. Monetization: Nobody seems to care about this anymore, but with their level of funding/valuation, it's probably becoming increasingly difficult to tell them that they're just a few pivots away from making money. However, until they have a clear idea of how people will engage with their product, I'm not so sure they'll know how to monetize. It seems like 4square is pushing towards some sort of CRM system for local merchants, but I don't think I'm smart enough to know the right answer to this one.

Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?

#45

Post by erikus »

herval wrote: post #36
matwood wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they have coupons :)

they have the "specials". speaking of which, has anyone actually successfully redeemed a "special" lately? I got 2 in my last trip to SFO, showed them on the counter and no one there knew what it was/gave me anything... :(

I was able to get a couple of specials honored in SF (buy one get one drinks in both cases).

Recently I've seem some of the specials requiring an AMEX credit card linked to my foursquare account, which I feel crosses the "worth it" line.

Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?

#46

Post by inthecompanyof »

4sq really suffers outside of the UK because of the lack of engagement from venues. We tried to set up a 4sq Special for an event, and the owner didn't see the point.

For me, the solution/pivot would be to provide a real-time customer database for venue owners. This then can be leveraged to create "real-time social networks"

For example, if I ran a coffee shop I'd want to know my customers as much as possible so they become regulars. Now anything than can create a faster/more informed way to create loyalty and offers seems like a great way in.

Throw in Square/NFC payments etc, and now we start to see a world whereby I turn up sit down, my regular order is brought to me, my 15% discount is applied and I pay without doing a single thing.

The owner has metrics to track the effectiveness of campaigns, it could be the google analytics of retail which is EXACTLY what we need.

Add in some smart POS software and I see some massive wins.

Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?

#47

Post by chanon »

nubela wrote: post #29

I used Foursquare, and I never found it more interesting than just a tool to check-in. And I see no value in that, nevertheless, I still felt LBS is a gold mine yet to be properly mined. And I'm determined to solve this problem! Or the problem of trying to trying to find interesting things around you. (Which is by itself a really different problet FS seems to be solving) And I'm solving it on the very promise that pe…

Cool idea. While I have no interest in 4sq, this sounds interesting to me.

I think the name is pretty weird though, no idea what it means / refers to.

Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?

#48

Post by antoko »

chanon wrote: post #47
nubela wrote: post #29

I used Foursquare, and I never found it more interesting than just a tool to check-in. And I see no value in that, nevertheless, I still felt LBS is a gold mine yet to be properly mined. And I'm determined to solve this problem! Or the problem of trying to trying to find interesting things around you. (Which is by itself a really different problet FS seems to be solving) And I'm solving it on the very promise that pe…

Cool idea. While I have no interest in 4sq, this sounds interesting to me. I think the name is pretty weird though, no idea what it means / refers to.

CTRL-F... it is a generally used keyboard shortcut for "Find..." at least on windows based machines.

Actually a clever URL - would non-geeks get it though?

Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?

#49

Post by yalimkgerger »

arnoldwh wrote: post #44
po wrote: post #10

A service like foursquare can be useful to different people in different ways. Some people use it as a personal record, some people use it for discovery, some as a social app, some like the game, etc… Many people might initially come for the game and stay for the deals. For example, when I lived in NYC I used to enjoy the game aspect and knowing where my friends were. When I moved to Tokyo, these weren't that useful…

I think I'd put what Foursquare has done well/not done well into three buckets: 1. Virality - Highly viral product that got shared enough to the point that almost everyone knows about it (in current target demographic). Throw up that Mission Accomplished banner. 2. Engagement: Falls off here. Most early adopters got bored, and it's just now catching on with what I would call the "early majority." This would be fine e…

I think you are spot on. I think they are pushing towards CRM. The question is how many users do they need to pull off a local merchant CRM tool that is big enough to justify the amount of funding they have received.

Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?

#50

Post by yalimkgerger »

goatcurious wrote: post #38

Isn't this a classic "Crossing the chasm" situation. The early adopters are convinced and evangelize 4Sq, however - there is still some convincing to do for them to win over the early majority. I would not call it trouble, just an interesting challenge...

Yes, exactly. I wonder if they will be able to though. Very interesting challenge. Trouble if it is not crossed.
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