Is Foursquare in trouble?
gerger.co
Is Foursquare in trouble?
1–10 of 53 posts
Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?
#2Is Foursquare in trouble? Of course they are. Checking in is, as this post suggests, merely a feature (of Facebook). When it was rumored that Facebook made a buyout offer my opinion was they should've taken it. Now? The best outcome I see for Foursquare is a talent acquisition.
Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?
#3certainly the experience is very different if you live in, say, New York City, than if you live in Istanbul and sometimes travel to New York City.
Though the 'cool kids' aren't using it, Yelp has basically cloned the 4sq product within it's mobile app (baron instead of mayor...). They come from a very strong position already having all that review content to support it. They seem like more a threat to 4sq than fb is.
Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?
#4Not at all, they are mobile, and social, and location based. All they need now is coupons.
Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?
#5Is Foursquare in trouble? Of course they are. Checking in is, as this post suggests, merely a feature (of Facebook). When it was rumored that Facebook made a buyout offer my opinion was they should've taken it. Now? The best outcome I see for Foursquare is a talent acquisition.
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Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?
#6Checking in on it's own has never been appealing to me. I dismissed 4sq early on as a fad and stupid. However, as a component in a life-streaming service, 4sq fits nicely. Back in the day I used brightkite to give me daily checkin / location data for a bike trip across the US. I've been playing with http://timehop.com/ now and have a reason to use foursquare. How this helps them build a sustainable business, Im not sure.
Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?
#7Yes Foursquare is in trouble much the same way Gowalla was.
Fortunately for Foursquare, they have a much larger audience. A very calculated-yet-subtle pivot could put Foursquare over the top into a category with Google, Facebook and Twitter.
That slight pivot will be a make or break for 4sq though. Gowalla went way off in the wrong direction with their pivot, regardless that they probably would've been acquired anyways.
I do not envy anyone sitting in on the meetings to design 4sq's next step. Then again the high risks involved might give them motivation.
That said, I do know the direction 4sq needs to go.
Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?
#8Not at all, they are mobile, and social, and location based. All they need now is coupons.
Buzz words do not a viable service make.
Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?
#9certainly the experience is very different if you live in, say, New York City, than if you live in Istanbul and sometimes travel to New York City. Though the 'cool kids' aren't using it, Yelp has basically cloned the 4sq product within it's mobile app (baron instead of mayor...). They come from a very strong position already having all that review content to support it. They seem like more a threat to 4sq than fb is.
Aren't "the cool kids" "so over" 4sq yet?
Re: Is Foursquare in trouble?
#10A 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 to me. Now I still heavily use the application because I find their venue locations to be more accurate than google maps.
Beware of people predicting doom because it doesn't solve their pet-problem. I can't tell you how many friends I have that initially signed up with twitter, posted 5 or 10 tweets and then went dark for months or years only to become active again. Twitter failed to solve a problem for those users initially. 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.