Foursquare recently announced that it has more than tripled its userbase in the past year. With a 50-50 split between U.S. and international users, Foursquare has established itself as king of the location-based social networks. Foursquare’s announcement arrived on the same day as Gowalla’s official “we’re moving to Facebook!” blog post.
In June, Foursquare boasted more than 10 million users, which suggests that these last five million joined over just the past six months. Find out what caused this rapid growth after the jump.
Shortly after the 10 million user announcement, Foursquare began its daily deals partnerships. One of those included integrating Groupon’s deal service into the “Explore” tab of the Foursquare app. This was in addition to the Groupon Now location offering, which helps Groupon scavengers find time-sensitive daily deals based on where they are at that moment in time.
A month later, Foursquare made its brand pages DIY, allowing anyone to sign up for a brand page and push tips and check-ins to followers on Foursquare, Facebook and Twitter. The only thing a user needs to get started? A Twitter account. By simplifying the process, Foursquare lowered the barrier for entry and upped the number of brands interested in using the platform for promotional purposes.
Klout began factoring Foursquare data into social influence ranking, marking its first step into utilizing location-specific data. Despite what many say about the oft-controversial Klout, it is still recognized as an important scoring model for social media influence. Integrating Foursquare into its PeopleRank algorithm strengthened Foursquare’s brand and gave social media users yet another reason to sign up for the location-based service.
Foursquare tips lists, which also launched in August, helped users become trusted tour-guides for niche interests, further broadening the way users could build influence and trust on Foursquare. A few days later, Foursquare added movies, music and sports to its check-in options. As the push toward real-time became clear, Foursquare integrated Radar, a feature that sends users notifications when they’re close to a place on their to-do lists or any other Foursquare lists they follow. This feature also notifies users if their friends are getting together nearby. Most recently, Foursquare announced its “Save to Foursquare” button. With it, users can save places they read about online straight to their Foursquare to-do list.
Foursquare’s user location data is its biggest asset. As the number of Foursquare users continues growing, and with Gowalla shutting down to join Facebook, the location-based space increasingly belongs to Foursquare. How will it innovate next?
