Foursquare burst onto the tech scene only three years ago causing
a lot of stir (even getting Facebook and Yahoo to make purchase offers), but
there are already concerns about its slowing growth. Maybe the owners are regretting not cashing
out when they had the chance (as I would be), but in order to reinvigorate the
application they are in the process of turning its focus to a recommendation service.
The application has “collected more than two billion pieces of data since 2009 about
where its 20 million users like to go and when” and can leverage this amazing
database to tailor recommendations to users who, for example, often check in at
Italian restaurants in NYC and are looking for similar recommendations in
Philly.
Is this pivot into the recommendation arena enough to save
Foursquare? According to the NY Times article, “much is riding on the success
of the new approach. The number of active Foursquare users grew 750% in the
year ended in April 2011 and 135% through this April — still strong growth, but
far from the exponential rates of other social services like Instagram. Roughly
one million new users are signing up each month.”
I’m not a user of Foursquare- personally I never really
understood the appeal of checking in on Foursquare every time you entered a
different establishment and am not one to update my Facebook status with every
detail of my whereabouts and agenda for the day- but I could see the appeal of
an improved recommendation application over my current go-to: Yelp. So here’s
to hoping Foursquare makes good use of the $72 million in venture funding and
delivers the next best location-based recommendation application, so we can all
find our new favorite restaurant.
-Danielle Cervelli
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