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Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

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Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

#61

Post by raverbashing »

thefreeman wrote: post #37

The 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 issue with the place.

"Sponsoring your listing" helps if you have a small amount of reviews (something like 5 to 10 reviews)

Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

#62

Post by Ensorceled »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #45
thefreeman wrote: post #37

The 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.

Now they just collect "protection money" from business to remove / prevent bad reviews I hope you have some kind of evidence for that, because it's a pretty serious accusation to throw around.

How is a off the cuff remark about a company's business mode on a internet discussion forum "a pretty serious accusation"?

Besides actual journalists have made this connection and published it, just google "yelp extortion"

Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

#64

Post by mason55 »

onion2k wrote: post #34
bandrami wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

was impossible to monetize successfully No excuse. If you have a timestamped record of people's interactions with physical businesses and can't find a way to monetize that, sell to one of the thousands of people who can connect those dots pretty easily. And how do you possibly convince yourself that moving into an already-saturated market like ratings is going to help?

If you have a timestamped record of people's interactions with physical businesses and can't find a way to monetize that, sell to one of the thousands of people who can connect those dots pretty easily. If it's as easy as you believe they wouldn't have pivoted. Perhaps they know something you don't. Or perhaps there's still a massive opportunity there. I don't know. And how do you possibly convince yourself that movi…

> I suspect it's by being wildly successful for a while and believing that you can translate that success in to a market that you can monetize

Not only that but in Foursquare leadership's case it was a matter of being wildly successful two times. Dennis had already sold the first version of Foursquare to Google.

Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

#65

Post by sriramk »

nailer wrote: post #56

From the article: > In attempt to placate frustrated users, Foursquare launched "Swarm," a separate check-in app with minimal features, removing most of what made the original Foursquare app great. " This sentence is provably incorrect. FourSquare launched Swarm before their pivot, there were no 'frustrated users' at that time because their main app still did checkins. The article makes it sound like FourSquare were…

I was about to come say this. That sentence is provably false - Foursquare took great pains to launch Swarm first and launched the other app months later. They also did extensive communication at each step of the way.

Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

#67

Post by randomsearch »

nailer wrote: post #56

From the article: > In attempt to placate frustrated users, Foursquare launched "Swarm," a separate check-in app with minimal features, removing most of what made the original Foursquare app great. " This sentence is provably incorrect. FourSquare launched Swarm before their pivot, there were no 'frustrated users' at that time because their main app still did checkins. The article makes it sound like FourSquare were…

> FourSquare launched Swarm before their pivot

Not really, it was part of their pivot. I think that was pretty clear at the time.

Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

#69

Post by nailer »

randomsearch wrote: post #67
nailer wrote: post #56

From the article: > In attempt to placate frustrated users, Foursquare launched "Swarm," a separate check-in app with minimal features, removing most of what made the original Foursquare app great. " This sentence is provably incorrect. FourSquare launched Swarm before their pivot, there were no 'frustrated users' at that time because their main app still did checkins. The article makes it sound like FourSquare were…

> FourSquare launched Swarm before their pivot Not really, it was part of their pivot. I think that was pretty clear at the time.

Yes, really. Events, in order:

1. Swarm released

2. New 4sq released

The article talks about 2 then 1, implying incorrectly that new 4sq was released, people got pissed off, then swarm was released.

I don't think anybody is arguing that it wasn't part of the pivot. I specifically am calling them out for implying 4sq was reacting to users who were pissed off with their new app, when their new app wasn't yet released.

Reference: http://mashable.com/2014/05/01/foursquare-swarm/

Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

#70

Post by ch8230 »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #45
thefreeman wrote: post #37

The 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.

Now they just collect "protection money" from business to remove / prevent bad reviews I hope you have some kind of evidence for that, because it's a pretty serious accusation to throw around.

There's a documentary being made about Yelp's strong arming: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1299637435/billion-doll...

I heard a business owner complained that yelp was showing mostly bad reviews after he refused to pay. So that's only anecdotal evidence but there seems to be more of it out there.

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