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Michael Arrington is so anti-yahoo that I find it difficult to read his articles about yahoo without wondering how much of that is just personal animosity. Fou

Michael Arrington is so anti-yahoo that I find it difficult to read his articles about yahoo without wondering how much of that is just personal animosity. Foursquare SHOULD sell. 4sq is going to become the friendster of the space. All these early starter companies get out-innovated, and it will happen very soon.

wdewind 17y ago
Couldn't agree more. Why would facebook buy them? For their < 1million users that are already on facebook? The engineering could also be done internally for far cheaper. Foursquare etc. find themselves in this position: the game mechanics they used led to explosive growth but also left them with a really low glass ceiling (think people don't get Twitter? ha.) They may have had a crazy hockey stick recently, but there is simply no way they will go main stream. It's got too MUCH personality: being mayor and getting badges will either REALLY resonate with someone or not at all. I think the founders see $80mm+ valuations on a product with a very small, homogeneous demographic of users as far greater than they could ever dream of with their current stats, and they know FB could relatively easily enter the space with a far bigger and international crowd, as well as a household name that already does biz with f500 companies, and just crush them. I think foursquare dies no matter what, if I were the founders I'd sell to the highest bidder and run.
- waterlesscloud 17y ago
  I think Foursquare's value is more likely in their relationships with businesses than the user base. As many have said, the userbase isn't that large yet, maybe a million people. But they're right on the verge of kicking in to the awareness of businesses, which is after all where their revenue is. I was at the buffet at the Las Vegas Hilton a couple of weeks ago, and they have the little internal advertising cards on the table. You know, visit our nightclub, see our show, that kind of thing. But one of the items was a "Check in with Foursquare, get rewards" card. That changed my perception of where Foursquare is with things. And what they really are. The casino sees them as another customer loyalty program. If they're providing customer loyalty programs to every business in the world...well. That's a market. And that's where they seem to be making the most inroads, moreso than with users so far. But if the businesses start helping them advertise, ala the casino... Foursquare is on the verge of being MUCH bigger in very short order. That's why the feeding frenzy is happening right NOW.
  - wdewind 17y ago
    You completely ignored the part of my comment where I mentioned that fb already has much better brand relationships and is already a household name. if facebook does NOTHING, yes foursquare could go somewhere. but the bottom line is they already releasing privacy settings with location awareness in them, it's only a matter of time before they have their own LBS. and for $125mm trust me, they will develop in house thank you.

wdewind 17y ago

Couldn't agree more. Why would facebook buy them? For their < 1million users that are already on facebook? The engineering could also be done internally for far cheaper. Foursquare etc. find themselves in this position: the game mechanics they used led to explosive growth but also left them with a really low glass ceiling (think people don't get Twitter? ha.) They may have had a crazy hockey stick recently, but there is simply no way they will go main stream. It's got too MUCH personality: being mayor and getting badges will either REALLY resonate with someone or not at all. I think the founders see $80mm+ valuations on a product with a very small, homogeneous demographic of users as far greater than they could ever dream of with their current stats, and they know FB could relatively easily enter the space with a far bigger and international crowd, as well as a household name that already does biz with f500 companies, and just crush them. I think foursquare dies no matter what, if I were the founders I'd sell to the highest bidder and run.

waterlesscloud 17y ago
I think Foursquare's value is more likely in their relationships with businesses than the user base. As many have said, the userbase isn't that large yet, maybe a million people. But they're right on the verge of kicking in to the awareness of businesses, which is after all where their revenue is. I was at the buffet at the Las Vegas Hilton a couple of weeks ago, and they have the little internal advertising cards on the table. You know, visit our nightclub, see our show, that kind of thing. But one of the items was a "Check in with Foursquare, get rewards" card. That changed my perception of where Foursquare is with things. And what they really are. The casino sees them as another customer loyalty program. If they're providing customer loyalty programs to every business in the world...well. That's a market. And that's where they seem to be making the most inroads, moreso than with users so far. But if the businesses start helping them advertise, ala the casino... Foursquare is on the verge of being MUCH bigger in very short order. That's why the feeding frenzy is happening right NOW.
- wdewind 17y ago
  You completely ignored the part of my comment where I mentioned that fb already has much better brand relationships and is already a household name. if facebook does NOTHING, yes foursquare could go somewhere. but the bottom line is they already releasing privacy settings with location awareness in them, it's only a matter of time before they have their own LBS. and for $125mm trust me, they will develop in house thank you.