I'm honestly quite surprised they got that much, seeing as they haven't really had any "huge" innovation or evolution since their original product. They have definitely improved some UI/UX on the app, but nothing ground breaking, to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Foursquare but they are getting harder to "keep loving" when they simply can't seem to hit their full potential.
I only use the service now if a location has a check-in special of some sorts. And to get those specials, you need more adaption from local businesses and I think that is where they are failing. I live in a big city, and I think I maybe see one new business a MONTH (at most) that actually utilizes Foursquare, and majority of the time it's just a big chain type store. They need to get a team together to pitch to the smaller indie type shops to get them on board to get users interested again. I'm also in the midwest, so maybe they are better in bigger coast cities?
EDIT (additional thoughts): I think they also won the hearts of their original users with the app "game-ification" which was incredible (at the time), but I think they need more than that now-a-days. It seems like every new app has "badges", "awards", etc. While it's good that Foursquare was one of the originals by doing that in a social setting, it's irrelevant now because so many businesses are doing it better than them. Just because you created the first wheel, doesn't automatically make you the best, and I think they are forgetting that and not thinking outside of the box of how to make their app more social and connect users like it originally had.
It really has turned into a great local discovery platform via their personal recommendations. As an anecdote, I am not from San Francisco, and visited the bay area in February. I checked into my hotel, 4sq knew that I had travelled over a 100 miles and most likely 'classified' me as a tourist. I checked into the Yerba Buena Gardens, the "people usually go to this burger place afterwards."; was a great place to eat.
I went up to the wharf, and checked in. With no ideas that there are sealions in the area, 4sq said that I should go check them out. So I walked over to Pier 39. They suggested Market Square, etc etc.
I know it is just a singular experience, and my local Los Angeles usage has definitely declined, but everytime that I travel I definitely use it to discover what there is to do. From "real" people in my same cohort.
My trip to Bogotá was 10x better experience because of FourSquare. GMaps was totally wrong, Yelp didn't exist, tourist guides are all cookie cutter. FourSquare had all these amazing recommendations, most of which came from people I follow. Great service.
The problem with this is in order for it to be a useful tourist app it has to be a frequently used local app. I tried to use it in Sydney a few weeks back and its recommendations were hopeless so we gave up and went trawling for food blogs.
IMO, FourSquare's big missed opportunity was the chance to become the first popular meatspace social network. They could've provided interesting ways to meet new people, not just track your friends.
Instead, they've pivoted into a boring Yelp competitor. In fairness, it's probably an easier way to make money. But I never hear anyone talking about FourSquare anymore.
> They could've provided interesting ways to meet new people, not just track your friends.
I couldn't agree more. And you're right, at one point everyone was always talking about in, checking in and everything, but you just don't see that or hear about it anymore. People would rather check-in on Facebook because they know their friends will see it, unlike checking in on FourSquare where it gets lost in app-space.
Really, the majority of hardcore FourSquare users I still see active are narcissistic bloggers who are always going to conferences or traveling.
I have zero interest in meeting random people via Foursquare -- however, the "explore" functionality is awesome. The competitor isn't Yelp (outside the Bay Area), but TripAdvisor, which is really the only service which great coverage of a lot of places.
I have been in the SF bay area, NYC, Europe and looked up TripAdvisor all the time. I tried to see if Foursquare provided any more useful information. Unfortunately, none.
As another comment already stated they have become a "boring yelp competitor" I think it is exactly this geographical information that they have in this database that is the main value the company has. If anybody wants to compete with Google on maps they will need this info. I think the investors are looking for an acquisition Yahoo/Facebook/Ms.
I only use the service now if a location has a check-in special of some sorts. And to get those specials, you need more adaption from local businesses and I think that is where they are failing. I live in a big city, and I think I maybe see one new business a MONTH (at most) that actually utilizes Foursquare, and majority of the time it's just a big chain type store. They need to get a team together to pitch to the smaller indie type shops to get them on board to get users interested again. I'm also in the midwest, so maybe they are better in bigger coast cities?
EDIT (additional thoughts): I think they also won the hearts of their original users with the app "game-ification" which was incredible (at the time), but I think they need more than that now-a-days. It seems like every new app has "badges", "awards", etc. While it's good that Foursquare was one of the originals by doing that in a social setting, it's irrelevant now because so many businesses are doing it better than them. Just because you created the first wheel, doesn't automatically make you the best, and I think they are forgetting that and not thinking outside of the box of how to make their app more social and connect users like it originally had.