It is no secret that I have a slight dislike for numbers. It may be a dislike based in fear. Or maybe just a dislike built from a relationship with tumultuous history. Or maybe I just love them so much that I hate them because I can’t master something I love that much. Either way, when we were told to look into Foursquare, join it and write about it I had a slight visceral reaction. To be fair, the site never had a chance with me. You put a number in your title and I turn a blind eye. Throw in a mathematical term like “square,” “logarithm” or, I don’t know, “addition,” then you may as well stop wasting your money trying to reach a potential customer like me because you’ve officially been tucked (and chained) away into the Hades of my brain. It’s like when your parents are selectively def to you only I do it with numbers. On top of that, I hate signing up for things online and having yet another account on another website that asks for another log in with another password that has to have another set of random numbers at the end of it and that asks me to type in the stupid random letters in the fishbowl view because, somehow, typing those letters means something. And, hey. Maybe it does. In which case, I welcome enlightenment and will happily include them every time someone tries to read my posts or when my professors need to open my assignments or when anyone opens my emails. Because, if it’s that important, then shouldn’t we all just instigate it?!
(NB – for all non-school readers, the rest of this may prove to be boring…or you may learn something that you feel like posing to your boss as some brilliant outlet for viral marketing or digital distribution or something)
Anyway, I’m digressing. Back to Foursquare. The business model is simple and, thus far, seemingly effective. Launched in 2009, Foursquare claims already to have more than 2 million users. If nothing else, Foursquare is a social networking tool used to disburse and take in information. There are 3 ways to be a Foursquare user: the person posting, the person reading and the company being referenced. As the poster, every time you go to a location and you want your friends to know where you are, you simply mark it on your Foursquare account. On the flipside, if I’m supposed to meet a friend and he says “Starbucks on 82nd Street” but there happen to be 2 Starbucks on 82nd street directly across the street from each other (since one of them is in Barnes and Noble*), then I could log into my Foursquare account and narrow down in which Starbucks he’s waiting. Thankfully, you don’t have to disclose your location to everyone (because, Jose Ramon, like you, I like my privacy too). As is evident by my example, there is the automatic benefit to Starbucks, our 3rd user.
Foursquare makes itself a bit more interesting through this gaming badge thing program that it runs. The way it works is that every time you check in somewhere, you gain points. Eventually, if you check in to a specific type of place enough you will receive a badge. They had a recent issue with their “douchebag badge.” It seems that if you went to Barney’s enough, you ran the risk of getting the douchebag badge. I find this hysterical for two reason: first of all, I actually love Barney’s so it’s funny that I’m on my way to douchebag-dom, and second of all, I love that Foursquare seems to blindly be digging it’s own grave. Or, do they think that all publicity is good publicity? Because, I'm not so sure that I agree. Also, if you check in to the same place more than once, you can be awarded the “mayor” title. Certain restaurants are actually doing mayor specials. Foursquare will even keep tabs on your activities and can draw up stats on your activities and where you check in so you can see your general habits. As of now, apart from being interesting to read about these offers, there is nothing about the badging mayoral system that seems enticing.
The final activity Foursquare offers, and the only one which seems semi-useful to a laymen user, is the navigator type tool that helps you discover the ins and outs of the city which you’re in. If you are on your phone (and that phone happens to have GPS), Foursquare will use the GPS to track where you are and recommend local bars, restaurants, shops around you. It presents you with tips from fellow users about that location. This is where their corporate partnerships mainly come in. They have deals with Zagats, Bravo, Lucky Magazine, and Harvard, to mention a few. Their partnerships allow for greater streaming of information to users and an increase of exposure to clientele for the companies. On top of that, the gps (and even the badging bit) is a passive form of viral advertising, allowing users to think the site is about them even though it’s really about generating profit for the companies. This aspect of the model is definitely worth exploring and dissecting to see how it can be applied in other industries.
Yelp, MyTown, Loopt, and Gowalla, (Google and Facebook are not far behind) all provide similar check-in services. So, who will win? Well, I can’t say but I’m pretty sure it will be whichever site your 14 year old niece/cousin/sister/neighbor and all of her friends prefer. Foursquare has already been referenced on Gossip Girl, giving them a nice step up amongst the tween community on the east coast (GG isn’t so popular out west).
One commendable thing about Foursquare is its success in making itself available to all users, no matter their mac, pc or smart phone preference. Apart from being easy to access by the users (which, interestingly enough, is parallel to their mission for their users to have easy access to each other), the ability to be located on a map visible to your friends, receive badges and become a mayor serve as the 3 major reasons why I wouldn’t join Foursquare. First of all, I don’t want to be found most of the time. Being connected to your network and being able to found by them are very different things. The idea of badges seems dumb to me. Becoming the mayor of a specific location is equally as silly. The main attributes seem to be the user sponsorship of certain locations, the user commentary on those locations and the development of corporate partnerships. The potential of this kind of a site seems to have barely been tapped since, as of now, this online playpen is only populated by the clientele. As soon as the little white rabbit in every company pops up with their clock reminding their corporate headquarters that they’re running quite behind and very late, I’m assuming they will jump in and begin a somewhat ethereal online promoting, cross-marketing, information streaming Wonderland frenzy. I really do envision this like a sandbox in Times Square.
So, am I sold on this site? Honestly, no. Obviously not. Foursquare seems to be scratching the surface of the future. It's a nice tease for what's to come but it seems to be more of an interim-fad geared very well for user #1 & 2 and a good instrument for experimentation for companies trying to figure out how maximize use of the internet and generate profit from it. Although I will not pretend to know what the future will have in stock for us, it won't, in my opinion, be about looking at a screen to see where we are all checking in...since, the screen is kind of what seems to be holding us back a bit.
I must say, however, that I am very happy to have even looked into Foursquare and had the opportunity to decide that it wasn't for me...it's something I would have never done sans Dans (haha, it rhymes...I know, I'm a dork). In the end, however, if it had a little more Ferris Bueller and a little less douchey-ness, I would be more driven to explore the site a bit more. Apart from that, however, I’m pretty happy without Foursquare in my life as I wait for the actual next big thing. It’s shocking, I know.
*By the way, the two Starbucks are actually not across the street from each other. One is on 81st and the other is on 82nd street. But you get the point…
Very interesting post Karina. I enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDeleteFoursquare is a game, and as any game, you can like it or hate it. But this is not about liking it or not, but to knowing how it works in order to use this platform for business purposes and/or to understand it in order to create new/similar business models (If any).
You said you would like to open restaurant? well, then you should know exactly how foursquare works... =) and to know that, you have to use it, so consider this as a research project and not your hobby or a passionate activity! =)
PS: the badge for Douchbag makes the game funnier. Again, you may find this stupid, other will find this funny!
PS: you are concern about your privacy, meaning, telling your IE friends were you are eating/drinking (how much privacy are you really loosing here?), well, you can also log in with another name, but, if people cant find you or recognize you, the game is not fun anymore. Therefore, hope to see you in 4square soon! =)
Hey Guerson,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your commentary. You are very right that this is not about liking or disliking Foursquare and about understanding the model and how it can be used for business purposes. I believe the business potential of a site like foursquare to be immense. I do not, however, think foursquare has come close to its potential. That, however, does not mean that I believe foursquare is to blame. It could just as easily be the slow response of companies to see the full value potential of using foursquare. I thought I had made it clear in my blog but I appreciate your highlighting that I did not.
See you in class!