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Foursquare Raises $35M More, Says It Has 45M Registered Users
- stevenj 13y agoSurprised to see that it has now raised a total of $106 million. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/foursquare http://www.crunchbase.com/company/foursquare
- meowface 13y agoThey've been around for almost 5 years now, so it's not too surprising. Not like they're a brand new startup.
- mathattack 13y agoThey're also into mining some of the "data exhaust". Monetizing this turns them into something much bigger than a social checkin company. Here's a presentation given at Data Driven New York. http://vimeo.com/79911529 http://vimeo.com/79911529
- yid 13y ago> They're also into mining some of the "data exhaust". Monetizing this turns them into something much bigger than a social checkin company. Location data changes very quickly: new places open and close, popularity waxes and wanes, and demographics of neighborhoods change unpredictably. Foursquare's location data is only as good as its freshness, so without a large pool of active users, there is no "data exhaust".
- mathattack 13y agoThis is and, not or. But it did sound like check in growth was tapering.
- dopamean 13y agoSomething about this presentation really bugged me. From an engineering standpoint I thought it was pretty cool but as someone who really enjoys trying out random things and discovering things (thats are new to me) I would never use something like their suggestion product.
- seiji 13y agoThe surprising part is — who uses it? Why is it relevant? It feels like they're dragging a fad out a little too long waiting for google to buy them (again) and then immediately close it (again).
- meowface 13y agoSome people really like it. I've talked to people who enjoy using it. It's not my cup of tea, but they definitely have an active user base.
- antr 13y agoIt seems to me that investors keep pouring money into the business in order to try to keep the option to sell it at (capital contribution) break-even alive. The previous round was a +$40m debt facility, and debt, when you haven't got cash flow, ain't cheap (PIK, warrants @ down round valuation, dilution, etc.). I hope the best for the company, but sometimes I wished SecondMarket, SharesPost, et al allowed one to short startups.
- malandrew 13y agoTotally true about debt, however, in this market, with quantitative easing, current interest rates, etc. and with the right connections to people in finance, you can leverage a company for a lot less now than any time I can remember. Getting a loan is the hard part. If you can get one, you're getting it for pennies on the dollar.
- antr 13y ago> you're getting it for pennies on the dollar What are you talking about? Foursquare ain't getting anything for free, if anything that debt is now over $50m at a very conservative 15% Kd assumption.
- barryswenson 13y agoCan I ask why?
- rfnslyr 13y agoI've literally never heard of foursquare in real life. Nobody I know uses it or has used it.
- ajaymehta 13y agoDo you live in an urban area? Foursquare has been commonly talked about by the non-tech-savvy people I know for years now. I'd actually say moreso than any social service other than Twitter and Facebook, over the past 3-4 years.
- capkutay 13y agoI don't know many people who check in, but if they do, they do it on facebook or instagram or twitter. The people I'm referring to our college kids or people living in SF or LA.
- rfnslyr 13y agoI live in downtown Toronto. I really don't know anyone who uses it.
- Diamons 13y agoI'm a 20 year old attending college in NYC. FourSquare is considered a running joke, like LinkedIn.
- possibilistic 13y agoWhen you graduate, there's a possibility that LinkedIn may not still be considered a joke, for better or worse.
- pacofvf 13y agowait until you get out of college, and start looking for a job, LinkedIn will have the last laugh.
- csmatt 13y agoI'm 27 and killed my LinkedIn account because 1) I just don't find them to be a company that is concerned with user privacy and 2) I have not once seen a benefit to being on it. I think it probably depends on your industry. I'm a programmer, so maybe if you're a finance major it's more useful.
- skillcode 13y agoThere is a reason behind them not mentioning the amount of active users.
- alttab 13y agoA couple hundred thousand, maybe.
- jarjoura 13y agohooray! So happy to see them make it this far, great job guys! Every iteration has been getting better and better.
- adrianwaj 13y agoCan 4sq help track where taxis are? Or even just friends or people on their way to meet you? That'd be killer. Combine that with cryptocoin payments and you'd have something that could compete with Uber or some taxi apps. Would be good if it could predict meeting times.. how long for A,B,C to meet with D according to certain parameters (time of day, mode of transport)? .. C has lowest travel time. How long for A to get from point 1 to point 2? What's the probability of A being close to point 3 in the next week according to prior travel? How close? When is best time to go from A to B this week? Also tracking fleets of cars/trucks.. create logistics apps, track travel times, optimal routes.
- jbensamo 13y agotry an app called Twist
- frostli 13y agoany clue how many active users monthly?
- uptown 13y agoFoursquare has served different purposes to-me over its evolution. Initially it was fun for the gamification aspect. I used it more than any other time. That eventually grew old, along with the privacy sacrificed in exchange for negligible returned value. Then, I used it to receive sponsored discounts. This was only an occasional use-case, but if you shopped at a store, and had your AMEX synced with Foursquare, you got a discount. AMEX seemed to take that concept over and now provides discounts for using your cards without needing to check-in, so that use-case disappeared. Now - I use it extremely rarely as a substitute for what something like Yelp does. I no-longer check-in, and rarely use the app. Some of my friends still religiously check-in ... and I guess it's neat to see those popup ... but I'm not sure how they monetize their 45 million registered users if their usage trend resembles anything similar to my own.
- mbesto 13y agoAnyone know if they have made any real money yet? Note - From this deck[1] it looks like their "mobile mass market mom" (female 25-54) could potentially be the breadwinner. I desperately want to start a company that serves this market - loads of disposable income, time, and actively social. [1]-http://www.businessinsider.com/leaked-pitch-deck-reveals-exactly-how-foursquare-plans-to-make-money-2013-4 http://www.businessinsider.com/leaked-pitch-deck-reveals-exa...
- ParkerK 13y agoThey're starting to make moves to. They recently overhauled the app to make it a lot less fun and social, and it has more ads now and the focus seems to have changed form fun to a yelp alternative, as others have pointed out.
- kentosi 13y agoSlightly frustrated Foresquare user here. I'm a little confused about its usage and was wondering if some of the more avid users here could clarify a few things for me. When I go to a restaurant, I have 3 separate actions that occur at 3 different times during my meal: 1 - Upon entering a restaurant, I want to "check in". 2 - When I get my meal, and it looks great, I want to post a photo. 3 - When I'm done eating, I want to leave a rating and a comment. It seems that Foresquare's check-in is a one-time only action. I can't "update" my checkin in its various stages. I don't use it as a social app as it's intended (since none of my friends use it here in Sydney). I use it as a tool to discover and rate restaurants.
- eigenvector 13y agoYou can update your check-in. If you simply check-in to the same location (but with a photo, comment, etc), it will automatically merge with and update your previous checkin.