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Leaked Pitch Deck Reveals How Foursquare Plans To Make Money

39 points by kschua 13y ago

DigitalSea 13y ago
It was bound to happen and showing targeted ads when people check-in is a no brainer. The issue Foursquare has is retaining the user base. I was an avid user for the better part of a year and then it just got tiring, it became a chore to check-in places and Facebook already had a similar feature. The badges aspect is cool, but the badges mean nothing and most of my friends stopped using Foursquare after a couple of months so there was no one to brag to and another issue is that people would cheat check-ins. I was competing for a local store that I would visit every morning and caught someone out checking in to the store when it wasn't even open and no, they didn't work there. Does Foursquare still have a large user-base left to monetise?
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- hkmurakami 13y ago
  It seems to still be popular it the tech early adopter crowd in Japan at least. I think they can make decent money just from Tokyo. Also, their reputation for having the best "what's good to eat here" feature quality in a really strong weapon to have.
habosa 13y ago
Is Foursquare really only bringing in $2M a year? Is that revenue or profit? Either way that's not a lot for a company that I'd consider to be in the "Big 7" of social networks (FB, Twitter, G+, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Foursquare). I mean that's certainly a lot of money in absolute terms but FB is bringing in billions a quarter. Also I've been to Foursquare's office in NYC and it's very, very nice. I would have a hard time believing a company barely getting by would invest in a place like that. Maybe that's a misquoted figure?
- clobber 13y ago
  > only bringing in $2M a year Surprise, surprise. Startup burning through venture capital while actual 'revenue' is smoke and mirrors. We've seen this movie before.
  - bitcartel 13y ago
    Wow, $71.4 million in funding! Edit: Privco predicts company will fail soon http://www.privco.com/privcos-2013-private-company-predictions-6-10 http://www.privco.com/privcos-2013-private-company-predictio...
  - brazzy 13y ago
    I thought that actual revenue is actively frowned upon because it's just an obstacle when you hype up the acquirement price tag. I guess Foursquare could actually serve as an example supporting the validity of that insane strategy... They're trying to actually make money, and found that there just isn't much money to be made with what they're doing, and now nobody wants to buy them either.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
InclinedPlane 13y ago
Seems a bit late for them to be figuring out how to make money.
coloneltcb 13y ago
Sad that this was deck was leaked on ValleyWag on Monday, but because Gawker is blacklisted from HN, it didn't make the front page until a crappy re-blog from BusinessInsider came out. I think HN is way too aggressive in banning domains (or at least not transparent enough about which are banned and why). For instance, I submitted this really interesting piece today on Buzzfeed's FWD tech vertical: http://www.buzzfeed.com/joshmiller/fwdus-breaks-its-first-promise-to-be-different http://www.buzzfeed.com/joshmiller/fwdus-breaks-its-first-pr... Because Buzzfeed is (apparently) banned, the link was autokilled as soon as I hit submit. I really don't mind that HN is curated--that's part of what makes it so good. But the lack of transparency seems almost like they are saying "Don't worry, just trust us, we know what's best for you."
- sneak 13y ago
  I didn't know that Gawker was banned from HN. Was a reason given, or can one be reasonably inferred?
  - est 13y ago
    Gawker is also banned on many sub-reddits. Maybe this? http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/16/reddit-gawker-ban http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/16/reddit-gawk... http://www.dailydot.com/news/gawker-reddit-banned-adrian-chen-violentacrez/ http://www.dailydot.com/news/gawker-reddit-banned-adrian-che...
    - JoachimSchipper 13y ago
      I'm almost certain that Gawker had already been banned for months if not years at that point.
      - coloneltcb 13y ago
        yea, it's been a while
  - hkmurakami 13y ago

39 points by kschua 13y ago

It was bound to happen and showing targeted ads when people check-in is a no brainer. The issue Foursquare has is retaining the user base. I was an avid user for the better part of a year and then it just got tiring, it became a chore to check-in places and Facebook already had a similar feature. The badges aspect is cool, but the badges mean nothing and most of my friends stopped using Foursquare after a couple of months so there was no one to brag to and another issue is that people would cheat check-ins. I was competing for a local store that I would visit every morning and caught someone out checking in to the store when it wasn't even open and no, they didn't work there. Does Foursquare still have a large user-base left to monetise?

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
hkmurakami 13y ago
It seems to still be popular it the tech early adopter crowd in Japan at least. I think they can make decent money just from Tokyo. Also, their reputation for having the best "what's good to eat here" feature quality in a really strong weapon to have.

habosa 13y ago

Is Foursquare really only bringing in $2M a year? Is that revenue or profit? Either way that's not a lot for a company that I'd consider to be in the "Big 7" of social networks (FB, Twitter, G+, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Foursquare). I mean that's certainly a lot of money in absolute terms but FB is bringing in billions a quarter. Also I've been to Foursquare's office in NYC and it's very, very nice. I would have a hard time believing a company barely getting by would invest in a place like that. Maybe that's a misquoted figure?

clobber 13y ago
> only bringing in $2M a year Surprise, surprise. Startup burning through venture capital while actual 'revenue' is smoke and mirrors. We've seen this movie before.
- bitcartel 13y ago
  Wow, $71.4 million in funding! Edit: Privco predicts company will fail soon http://www.privco.com/privcos-2013-private-company-predictions-6-10 http://www.privco.com/privcos-2013-private-company-predictio...
- brazzy 13y ago
  I thought that actual revenue is actively frowned upon because it's just an obstacle when you hype up the acquirement price tag. I guess Foursquare could actually serve as an example supporting the validity of that insane strategy... They're trying to actually make money, and found that there just isn't much money to be made with what they're doing, and now nobody wants to buy them either.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

InclinedPlane 13y ago

Seems a bit late for them to be figuring out how to make money.

coloneltcb 13y ago

Sad that this was deck was leaked on ValleyWag on Monday, but because Gawker is blacklisted from HN, it didn't make the front page until a crappy re-blog from BusinessInsider came out. I think HN is way too aggressive in banning domains (or at least not transparent enough about which are banned and why). For instance, I submitted this really interesting piece today on Buzzfeed's FWD tech vertical: http://www.buzzfeed.com/joshmiller/fwdus-breaks-its-first-promise-to-be-different http://www.buzzfeed.com/joshmiller/fwdus-breaks-its-first-pr... Because Buzzfeed is (apparently) banned, the link was autokilled as soon as I hit submit. I really don't mind that HN is curated--that's part of what makes it so good. But the lack of transparency seems almost like they are saying "Don't worry, just trust us, we know what's best for you."

sneak 13y ago
I didn't know that Gawker was banned from HN. Was a reason given, or can one be reasonably inferred?
- est 13y ago
  Gawker is also banned on many sub-reddits. Maybe this? http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/16/reddit-gawker-ban http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/16/reddit-gawk... http://www.dailydot.com/news/gawker-reddit-banned-adrian-chen-violentacrez/ http://www.dailydot.com/news/gawker-reddit-banned-adrian-che...
  - JoachimSchipper 13y ago
    I'm almost certain that Gawker had already been banned for months if not years at that point.
    - coloneltcb 13y ago
      yea, it's been a while
- hkmurakami 13y ago