Foursquare Dominates the Week
The best or biggest deal, assertion, investment or other strategy this week.
Who: Foursquare
What: A revenue plan, a growth strategy and a (small) design upgrade
A slew of developments came out of location-based social network Foursquare this week, just days after the company announced it would partner with Groupon to share the daily deal giant’s discounts. Foursquare, which has 10 million users and a $600 million valuation, is going to start trying to make real money charging merchants for services that have until now been free. At the same time, it is encouraging user-generated content, letting brands and individuals create pages that anyone can follow, without having to friend the person or organization first–something like Facebook fan pages. (Read: Encouraging more companies to get on board so it can charge them.) Finally, when users check in to locations on FS, their profile photos will now show up. In short, the company is smartly moving to justify its valuation and pull far ahead of the competition with features and partnerships. And in a sign that its influence is growing, Klout, a site that scores people’s influence by tracking their social media activity, announced that it would add Foursquare to the powerhouses it uses to determine scores (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn). Welcome to the club.
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