Foursquare continues to sign interesting deals with major players in a wide range of fields. Following the service’s Bravo deal a couple weeks ago, they’ve reached a deal with restaurant rating guide Zagat, according to The New York Times. And AdAge has some details about deals with even more partners, including HBO, Warner Brothers, and the History Channel.
The service has been on a roll lately. They’re now seeing over a million check-ins a week, with that rate doubling in the last month alone. And these new deals can only help them as they bring the type of mainstream appeal that it took services like Twitter so long to find.
While Zagat is an obvious partner thanks to its restaurant recommendations, the entertainment partnership appeal may not be immediately apparent. But as you can see on the Foursquare page for the movie Valentine’s Day, those promoting the movie have added 50 “Romantic Tips” around the cities that the movie takes place in, New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Boston. Any Foursquare user that checks-in at one of these places will unlock a special badge for the movie.
The new HBO show, How To Make It In America, meanwhile, has four special badges that you can unlock: Culture, Living, Cocktails, and Nightlife. Each of these is obtained by visiting venues from the show.
And the Zagat deal is interesting in that it goes beyond simply offering food and restaurant recommendations. The service plans to have a weekly web video series entitled “Meet The Mayor” in which they interview the Foursquare “mayor” of a restaurant in their guide.
Another deal that Foursquare recently signed was with Harvard. And Foursquare is also partnering with Conde Nast’s Lucky Magazine to encourage users to check into select stores during New York’s Fashion Week.
These types of deals are crucial to Foursquare not only because they point to an eventual money-making opportunity, but also because they give the service a way to fend off attacks from Yelp (which just launched a check-in feature on its own iPhone app), and soon Facebook. Meanwhile, these deals give brands a fun way to interact with the public. It’s advertising, but it’s interactive.
Now Foursquare just has to solve that douchebag problem…
I bet MG popped more than his collar with that last line.
Hey, I said I would post 8 times a month on foursquare to keep the momentum going.
Never mind that there are many services that do the exact same thing and are FAR larger.
Never mind that this is just a feature on something like facebook.
I want to believe. Believe that I can promote it enough so it “wins”. Whatever that means.
Foursquare allows registered users to connect with friends and update their location. Points are awarded on weekends and non-business hours for “checking in” at venues. Users can choose to have their Twitter and/or their Facebook accounts updated when they check in
Currently this one is starting to dominate the way how you discover geo-targets in USA (using social media and game) More details: http://bit.ly/foursquare-detailed-review
Hi guys,
Don’t Hate!! MG needs to make money too. if you give MG mac book pro everyday, he will blog about you everyday too…
Techcrunch does not pay that much you know..
Good… I wasn’t the only one to find that macbook event slightly “ironic.”
dilute douchebags
Another reason these deals are smart for Foursquare: Users will get accustomed to seeing sponsors in the app, and Foursquare will be able to monetize without the backlash that Twitter is facing because they were sponsor/advertising free for so long.
As long as the sponsorships continue to add value to the service, they are a win for three reasons:
1. The partners help to promote Foursquare, which helps to increase its mainstream appeal.
2. Foursquare gains credibility by working with larger, big name brands.
3. Brands can experiment with geo-location in a non-intrusive way and figure out what works and what doesn’t in this new medium.
good points.
@cory Agreed – and amazed at how quickly big brands are seeing the engagement and monetization potential of Geo-Location services.
You’re right Cory- for foursquare to keep ahead of yelp (and the many other new/potential check in challengers) it has to ink these partnerships. By providing users with more tangible rewards for checking in (and signing up for the service), the more it incents users to remain active.
If Foursquare can cross the gap into popular lexicon- much like twitter has this past year- it’s future is made. But to win those middle America consumers, it has to solidify those relevant partnership deals. It’s going to be interesting to see where they take it from here
Tim
“they’re now seeing over 1 million check-ins a week.” At 300k users, 1.2 million check-ins a week = 4 check-ins a week per user which = a check-in per user every other day. That’s hardly a high usage statistic given the amount of time people spend on their mobile devices.
Kudos to their partnership team, though. They are certainly cutting some high profile deals and keeping themselves in the tech news.
Bad math.
Of the 300k users, like only 5-20% are the people contributing most to the services. Plus, if you actually use any of these services, you’ll actually experience what usage is like.
Typically it’s sparse during the week and heavy on weekends when it’s probably most useful.
MG.. If you hurry up and do a post about iPad, your quota for FourSquare and Apple for today is all done. End is in sight!
Hi, what’s up? I am looking for a date on Valentine’s Day my profile @ http://bit.ly/cqd0a2
LOL LOL LOL! u got it @Din mor!!
This is all great but where’s the social engagement and sustainability?
Pretty Interesting.
forsquare is SO irrelevant. it’s about as useful as a bag of sand.
On Family Guy Stewie learns some people like to get treated like crap http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpKrfxY8SOo
I think that FourSquare thinks that if they call MG a Doucebag then he will write daily articles professing his undying love for the service.
Like Family Guy, FourSquare seems to be right!
Google should buy Foursquare and let the service degrade into nothing…. again!
FourCrunch, you made me crazy! It’s amazing, I’m going to find a girl just to explore the “Romantic Tips” for Valentine’s day!
Public announcement: a Frustrated European Entrepreneur is looking for a geek girl to date in 50 different locations for an amazing Valentine’s day experience!
Thanks, FourCrunch!
Interesting that Union Square Greenmarket is listed but it won’t be open on Valentines Day as it is only open Monday, Wednesday, Friday Saturday.
Foursquare is creating “augmented media experiences”, blurring the lines between what’s on screen and what’s in real-life. Watch a movie or show, then go “experience it” in real life.
People really crave this blurring of lines between movies and real life.
Foursquare’s approach to this is still very superficial and doesn’t at all provide that “living in the movie” type of experience.
More here: http://tvnewsstream.com/foursquare-is-pioneering-a-new-form-of-augmen
FourSquare still needs to grow. Partnerships are great for traction.
Seriously, who has time to be an on-going, active participate in this? College students, underemployed, and unemployed. Folks with just too much time to kill
There is a peer element to this, like Twitter. You do it to be cool, to explore new interesting concepts, to stay fresh
But do you do it a year from now when the buzz is gone?
In time the product will mature to something valuable (hopefully) for the mainstream market. The obvious market they could get into is Yelp. They could become the authority on local businesses and restaurants and eat away at Yelp in no time.
Great post. It is clear You have a great deal of unused capacity, which you have not turned to your advantage.
The way you write shows you have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself.
It seems to me that while While you have some personal weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them.
This is great news. Now, if they can just provide a better help section so that I may use my non-smart cell phone, I’ll be totally onboard….
This is all thanks to their rockstar VP of Business Development Tristan Walker.