Some feature ideas they should have tried: real time locations of friends/family (ala Google Latitude), integration with something like Angie's list, integration with something like gasbuddy.com, pull in data from Google Now (be like Google Now but I see it on a map).
Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins
151–160 of 178 posts
Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
If your monetisation attempt kills your app, you will go bankrupt and it is a failure.
If you grow so big that you are verb, and yet still have not monetized, then you had a deep flaw in your business plan from day one.
Many apps try to just get traction instead and grow on that front, that they're as big as possible, then worry about monetization.
Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins
#153The funny thing is, I bet a graph of their profits would be totally different. Companies like Yelp and Foursquare are actually in the blackmail business. They needed the users to achieve a massive amount of reviews. Now they just collect "protection money" from business to remove / prevent bad reviews and laugh all the way to the bank. At least, that is the only way I can see their move making any kind of sense.
I see this myth being repeated, but it's clear it comes from people not familiar with the platform I've never seen a place with an undeserved good/bad reputation. And I've seen a lot of reviews from those sites (and went to those places) As the number of reviews increase the "I'll never go back to this place" begins to show, but they're compensated by good reviews. Now, systematic bad reviews usually mean there is an…
Take a look at this Yelp business: http://www.yelp.com/biz/morgan-automotive-portland
It has 33 5-star reviews that are "unapproved", and eight 1-star promoted reviews that amount to a 2 star overall rating. I'd say that's an undeserved bad reputation. And no matter how many good reviews there are, the 1-star ratings are still the only ones weighing in.
In comparison, Google review page has a near perfect 5-star non-curated rating - https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e...
The real kicker here is that to get to these 5 star Yelp reviews, you have to navigate a barely legible grey link at the bottom of the page. Purposefully hiding good reviews until the business pays for membership borders extortion to me.
Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Oh, I'll TiVo that!" And how are they doing?
Pretty well. Actually very well. Meeting expenses with quite a bit of padding. That used to be the definition of success before the cult of "growth" took over everything.
So, you mean profit? They're a public company, so the bar it set at a different level.
Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ha. Hahaha. How many apps at that scale have you run? Foursquare is on AWS[0] and serves 40 million users. Their monthly spend there is probably at least in the 10-20k range. And this is before even considering that they had 135 employees at the time[1] and swank offices in a hip neighborhood in NY. Making all that back with "ads", especially when your platform is almost completely on mobile, is not a cakewalk. 0: ht…
they had 135 employees at the time[1] and swank offices in a hip neighborhood in NY. Making all that back with "ads", especially when your platform is almost completely on mobile, is not a cakewalk. How about firing 120 employees and moving to a smaller office, just until you've figured out how to make money?
Or why the need to grow to 135 employees with a checkin app for two mobile platforms? What do they all do and how is that aligned with the product at hand?
Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's funny how everyone in this thread is saying they needed a monetisation strategy but no one has suggested one. Maybe there just isn't a business in check ins.
How about "be acquired by Google."
That didn't work out so well the first time, did it?
https://gigaom.com/2007/04/15/dodgeball-founder-quits-google...
Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
The leadership of Foursquare failed. They had a very popular product but couldn't make anything out of it; hence the pivot. They should have sold the company while the valuations were good. Now, the company is the Mayor of crushed expectations.
Is it really the leadership that failed? Their product was popular, but I can't see any way they could make money on it. I don't think that means the leadership was bad, I think it means the product was inherently un-monetizable.
You could have monetised it the same way you monetise many other apps. With ads? I mean, Twitter's monetisation model isn't exactly genius either...
Why not give a coupon when checking into a place that is near others - making people stop by another place/shop to maybe purchase something? (lat/long based)
Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins
#158I never understood how they could not make money. You have built a platform where people notify you exactly when and where they are about to spend money.
Loyalty program? Upselling? Competitor advertising or intelligence?
Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
Facebook checkins that I see on my wall are usually limited to "I want to brag about the good food I'm eating without Instagramming a picture of it, so I'll just check in at the restaurant". I don't think people trust Facebook enough to overtly give it access to more important location data, or I could just have too much faith in the average FB user.
Your friends don't really sound like a representative sample. Most people complain about Facebook on privacy but don't modify their behavior in any way.
There's a difference between modifying their current behavior and going out of their way to give FB more data without any real benefit. I don't think FB checkins have been super successful, have they?
Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
The leadership of Foursquare failed. They had a very popular product but couldn't make anything out of it; hence the pivot. They should have sold the company while the valuations were good. Now, the company is the Mayor of crushed expectations.
Is it really the leadership that failed? Their product was popular, but I can't see any way they could make money on it. I don't think that means the leadership was bad, I think it means the product was inherently un-monetizable.
Lots of valuable data for mapping, local search, and the ad targeting that goes with it. Valuable to Google, Apple, Facebook and a few others. The failure was in growth, blame likely correctly laid on Facebook.