I suppose I ought to count myself as among the 7.1% or nearly 17 million mobile warriors in the US who check-in from time to time. No longer do I check into a place if I happen to visit it to use the restroom or grab a quick cup of coffee at Starbucks. While this Bloomberg post has taken the data from comScore with a more positive spin, I've come across other articles that are more negative. 17 Million users, I reckon most are casual users, is not a big enough market to try to cater a service towards.
The thing to take away from all this is deals, deals, deals.
This really sums it up. And without it, these check-ins will start to get old and become nothing more than a mobile fad worthy of maybe a few passages in the history of mobile. See, I hardly check into a Starbucks anymore unless is a new one in a far-flung city. I mean checking into Starbucks, which is where I happen to be now, means nothing. I go often enough to the nearest Starbucks but not nearly enough to displace whoever the mayor is. And how many more coffee badgets can Foursquare offer me? But give me deals and I'm all over it.
I think Foursquare and the other services out there are missing an opportunity. They've got a big enough user base that they can leverage their for business opportunities much like the way Groupon and LivingSocial do. Heck, if I'm the CEO of Foursquare, that's what I'll do tomorrow. Set up a tech team as well as a procurement team to set up my very own Groupon.
After all, Facebook is who they all have to contend with. Facebook has the hundreds of millions of users, which dwarfs Groupon and Foursquare. It also has a growing (if it is disconcerting...you know, not a care in the world about the privacy of its users) check-in use. And it is getting into the local deals business.
So, it is only only imperative that Foursquare and others like it consider doing deals that enhance their use, not to mention a revenue stream that has proven to be very lucrative.
More at Bloomberg.
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