There has been a lot of chatter lately about Foursquare and its emergence as a new model for local. We are also following their development because 1) we are in the local space and 2) Foursquare is an NYC company and we love to see good things come out of NYC. Also having met the founders, Dennis and Naveen, makes it all the more interesting to see where they are going with their company.
One of the best posts about Foursquare and its potential comes from Charlie O’Donnell, Why Yelp (… and every single retail establishment) Should Support Foursquare. While the business opportunities he presents are interesting, the better part of the post is his description of how we got sucked into the service.
The game mechanics built into Foursquare build the community and push individual users to contribute. The subsequent growth of the service and its “buzz” has led to some local merchants to reward Foursquare users with offers and discounts. There have been a number of follow on commentaries since Charlie’s post, below are some of the more interesting ones.
Fred Wilson - Playing Foursquare
Techcrunch - Foursquare Shows The Business Potential of Location-Based Services
Greg Sterling - Foursquare and the LBS Biz Model
It is interesting to note that the least enthusiastic post is by Greg Sterling, a local search and lbs analyst. He sees Foursquare as a niche play rather than a new paradigm for local merchant/customer interaction.
Another aspect that is overlooked is the Foursquare API. We have been taking a look at the API and are impressed with how open the Foursquare team is with their data. This will be another driver for adoption and innovation.
I think that Foursquare has some serious potential to change the local landscape. A lot of that stems from the approach that Dennis and Naveen take towards local businesses. Unlike Yelp, which states that local business interests come behind the interests of the Yelp community, Foursquare embraces and promotes local businesses. It gives them a way to identify and reward their most loyal customers, who in turn are their best marketing tools.
Companies that work with local businesses and offer them ways to connect better with their customers will lead the next local revolution. It is the reason why we spend our days creating intricate 3D maps of NYC. We want people to explore neighborhoods and discover great local businesses. Our aim it to provide an easy way to find businesses around a location and to help them draw customers into their stores through specials, deals or coupons.
There are many opportunities left in the local space and it is good to see companies like Foursquare continuing to innovate for consumers and local businesses.
