71–80 of 178 posts
Once they removed checkins and moved it to another app, most of the people were outraged and decided they didn't want another app. The few who did give the other app eventually stopped using it because none of their friends were using it any more.
It is like Google deciding they to discontinue search and concentrate on ads.
This matches my real life observations. I personally stopped using both Foursquare and Swarm and I know a lot of people who did. However, this graph does not mention the popularity of Swarm. It's likely that some Foursquare users switched to Swarm and uninstalled Foursquare entirely.
That is not a graph of the Foursquare app's popularity. It's a graph of Google searches. It was in trouble before it split the apps. Lots of searches are driven by news stories, including bad news stories. For example the marker D is a story about how Foursquare resorted to raising debt financing to avoid a down round. It's a mistake to label that "SUCCESS".
Keith Rabois has hinted that they did do a down round: http://jackgavigan.com/2013/03/17/foursquare-does-a-down-rou...
It looks more like a long and steady decline that has slowed somewhat since releasing Swarm. https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=swarm%20app%2C%20fou... Note that you should sum the two together to be fair, meaning they haven't declined much since a year ago.
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=Foursquare&geo=TR&cmp...
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…
Two years ago I sat in on a call with a Yelp rep with a former employer of mine (small business connected to the real estate industry). The Yelp rep said "Advertising through Yelp will almost instantly increase you rating." My employer asked "Does that mean you'll manually fix my score?" To which the rep responded, "Your rating will get better if you advertise with us."
That was 2 years ago. I know Yelp has gotten flack since then, and maybe they cleaned up. But that stink of being a thug doesn't wash off quickly, especially in the small business community.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> wildly successful app Foursquare didn't agree. They didn't pivot just because it's the cool thing to do.
> Foursquare didn't agree Maybe the millions of users actively making check-ins every day weren't too big of a clue for them? They needed a monetization strategy, you pivot when your product is not being used.
This matches my real life observations. I personally stopped using both Foursquare and Swarm and I know a lot of people who did. However, this graph does not mention the popularity of Swarm. It's likely that some Foursquare users switched to Swarm and uninstalled Foursquare entirely.
Exactly. Me and my friends also stopped using the app just after they remove all the gamifications and mayorship thing. It was super cool amongst friend to be a mayor of some place.
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…
I've seen dozens. It happens in smaller towns, and smaller markets in large cities.
That is not a graph of the Foursquare app's popularity. It's a graph of Google searches. It was in trouble before it split the apps. Lots of searches are driven by news stories, including bad news stories. For example the marker D is a story about how Foursquare resorted to raising debt financing to avoid a down round. It's a mistake to label that "SUCCESS".
- Crowley built this product before and sold it to Google.
- Foursquare was an overnight phenomenon and had great user engagement. People were addicted to this app!
- They raised a ton of VC money and were able to hire some of the best engineers in NY.
- They're still struggling to build a sustainable business model.