The SXSW festival in Austin, Texas is currently ground zero for a war, the location war. While over a dozen services have launched new products or features around location, two still seem to stand above all others in terms of use here: Foursquare and Gowalla. Earlier today, Business Insider ran a report suggesting that Foursquare was dominating the battle — unfortunately, that’s simply not true.
In fact, Foursquare and Gowalla are basically in a statistical dead heat, at least in Austin. Multiple sources confirmed this information, and one actually showed me proof (which I was asked not to share). In other words, the war is still raging.
So why did Business Insider draw the conclusion that Foursquare was “mopping the floor” with Gowalla? Because they looked at their “The Hive” feature which scans Twitter for links being shared by influencers, and noticed that many more are sharing Foursquare links. Of course, the main problem with this information is that it uses a small sample set of data. The other problem, as Business Insider notes in an update, is that Foursquare tends to have more “spam check-ins” — that is, fake check-ins.
It’s important to remember that while Gowalla uses GPS data to verify a person is actually at the venue they say they are, Foursquare does not. That’s how this guy can check-in all over the world and steal mayorships for places he’s never been. The downside to Gowalla’s system is that sometimes it prevents you from being able to check-in at all, if they can’t verify you’re at a place. Or sometimes places are created in the wrong spot, so you can’t check-in some places even if you’re really there.
To use my own small sample set of data, it seems that the people on my social graph is Austin are in fact using both Foursquare and Gowalla to check-in everywhere they go. I’ve also noticed that more seem to be sending check-in data to Twitter from Foursquare. But again, that doesn’t mean they’re not using both, just that they’ve decided to use only one to send out data to Twitter (which makes sense), and for whatever reason, most are choosing Foursquare for that.
[image: DreamWorks Pictures]
Hey MG:
What I can tell you from being down here in Austin is that I am utilizing both Gowalla and Four Square. At times, I can not make up my mind. I see advantages and disadvantages of both. At least here in Austin, neither Gowalla or Foursquare is winning from my perspective.
Are you sure? It seems Foursquare has the buzz:
Foursquare:
http://viralheat.com/social_trends/profile/10271/foursquare
Gowalla:
http://viralheat.com/social_trends/profile/10270/Gowalla
So which platform will users support? One that lets them check-in no-matter-what (FourSquare)? Or a system that attempts to lock down on spam and hence doesn’t register some locations, and then forces people not to check in and therefore annoys them (Gowalla).
I’m betting that people will probably opt for FourSquare after getting annoyed by Gowalla a few times.
Funny, I got annoyed with the “check-in no-matter-what” of Foursquare because of people checking into locations from the convenience of their home. Hence the name FauxSquare
I agree 100%
I just downloaded both apps, but will probably not use Foursquare, unless they correct that “flaw”.
The beauty of Gowalla is that you have to LEAVE the house, otherwise what’s the point?
I would rather see poeple trying out new things, going new places, than people just spamming the site and Twitter.
But I still forget to check in to Gowalla. :)
Will all these heat coming around with these 2 big geobased apps. I was wonderin’ when will this hit countries outside USA? (I’m pertainin’ to Asia)
Seriously… a lot of people here still has no clue what foursquare and gowalla…really are (not the food)
IMO, geo-tagging/location capability is starting to become the future. And it should be for everybody.
More details: http://bit.ly/foursquare-detailed-review
Second that, tren. Here in Estonia there are maybe a 100 LBS users in total. Great for meeting everybody though cause you end up checking in with the same people all the time.
- Kris
http://saotomeblog.com/
Hey MG:
From my experience in Austin, users are using both. Neither Gowalla or Foursquare is winning but there are other players getting noticed more i.e. Plancast.
Foursquare all the way!
It’s only a matter of time before the two services merge.
I would be more concerned with facebook since they can easily drink their milkshake.
I only use Foursquare. I don’t have time to check-in to multiple places. Using a tech conference as a gauge of service popularity is a terrible idea.
Foursquare is mopping the floor of gowalla. Just look at the check-in numbers.
Yeah I just checked into Uchi’s off of south lamar in Austin. Im in Los Angeles.
“Foursquare is mopping the floor of gowalla. Just look at the check-in numbers.”
well, i did, actually – hence the article.
When Facebook and Google commit to this then it will be game over for both services as they’re either acquired or eaten…
I’d love to see the source for the claim that gowalla and foursquare are neck-and-neck at sxsw. i’m a foursquare loyalist but am trying gowalla for the first time to check it out. At all the sxsw events that I’ve checked in using both, gowalla shows 10% of the number of checkins as foursquare. for the record, i think gowalla has done a good job creating awareness at sxsw through all the sponsorship, but it doesn’t look to me like all the awareness is translating into conversion. ~ @luckyjodi
hopefully soon i can show you – for now you’ll just have to trust me :)
Brightkite anyone?
I can’t believe this article was published. Why don’t you get some real data that can be shared and then draw some conclusions.
Your own reporting of vicarious.ly helps visualize who is checking in with what, when, and where:
http://austin.vicarious.ly/
true, but not raw numbers.
“It’s important to remember that while Gowalla uses GPS data to verify a person is actually at the venue they say they are, Foursquare does not”
I have been able to checkin with Gowalla anywhere, not sure if it’s a bug on the Android phones or not.
Comparing the Foursquare and Gowalla app on the Android I would say Foursquare wins, you can’t search for places in Gowalla, so if it’s not showing up in your the list of places, you can’t check in there.
Gowalla might lose more ground if they don’t fix their “Item Drought” problem soon.
http://getsatisfaction.com/gowalla/topics/empty_pack_20_check_ins_13_days_zero_bonus_items
I was a strong supporter of Gowalla, until I was affected by this problem. I’m going through withdraw from getting new bonus items. I hope Gowalla is having fun at SXSW because most of their users that are not there can’t get any items.
I’ve also commented on this on, how founders are basically penalized, because you have to drop an item to be a founder. After founding x amount of places you have no more items, if places you go have no items being awarded, and nothing to trade.
Anyways.. i think gowalla is becoming an excellent life streaming platform, from checking in , to adding pictures and comments. Still don’t see appeal of foursqaure.
breaking! gowalla hires new spokesperson! http://bit.ly/9aPQcw
The comment of the day!
I don’t think they are really that relevant to social networking advancements based on the number of followers they each have on twitter. The only people that really use this is Siegler, Kevin Rose, Ijustine, Robot Schoble and a bunch of sheeps.
I prefer syrup
Given MyTown’s traffic, why no mention of Booya MyTown????
I think yes sure…Are you sure? It seems Foursquare has the buzz:
I agree with Dee. I’ve tried both and while theres nothing wrong with the service I wouldn’t continue to use it. Gaining naff badges lost its appeal to me after I got done with boy scouts. Hearing Scoble yesterday made me laugh, he was saying how he made 1000 new ‘friends’ on Gowalla but still nothing compared to his 7000 on foursquare. He’s like those kids on myspace who used to see it as something special to have 100,000 friends, and when I say friends I just mean random people who’ll you’ll never meet irl.
Most of my friends who aren’t in tech don’t see the appeal at all.
this whole war is disorganizing the upcoming “location” industry..i dont have time to go and check in to all these services when i walk into a restaurant..why doesn’t someone just come up with an app that will check in to both foursquare and gowalla at the same time..(or all other location services for that matter)
Here in the UAE, although numbers for both services are miniscule – FourSquare is definitely ahead of Gowalla. Much of the loyal and local twitter community is found and is active on FourSquare whereas Gowalla lacks both users and activity.
I guess while Gowalla is seeing an increase in numbers, chances are it’s only just playing catchup.
The location war is a war where everyone wins. The more the public gets used to using location based apps…the more opportunity for location apps to get mainstream acceptance. The winner will be the one that users find most compelling and useful.
-Dan Cote
http://www.YourLocalBlog.com
(Hyperlocal map-based blogging network)
“and steal mayorships for places he’s never been”… ooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh the horror!
Your social graph (valley heavy) would be just as skewed as mine (nyc) heavy. That being said… been taking informal surveys of new people I meet… Seems pretty clear that Foursquare is ahead.
At the same time, don’t discount “fake checkins”. If I tell my friends I’m checked into the Friendster party, why should that count against the service. It’s funny, and it makes people want to use it more. That’s like saying Tweets where people don’t actually answer the question “What are you doing?” don’t count. Also, the fakes angle is highly over-exaggerated, prob by Gowalla supporters.
Lastly, given that this is Gowalla’s home turf, and their funding, it would be pretty sad they even played to a tie, which I don’t think is happening here.
“Location war” link on second line is a broken.Please make corrections
Has anyone been using http://www.fourwhere.com to find comments/tips around Austin?
This is a free service from Sysomos that does not require logging in or registering. Give it a try!
If there are a lot of users are checking in with Foursquare and Gowalla, but Foursquare is the one they’re pushing to Twitter, my first hypothesis would be “Most of the users like Foursquare more than Gowalla.”
Right now, there are people using both services because they feelt they must use both services to stay connected to their friends. Eventually, one geolocation service will get a big enough share of the user base that other services’ userbases seem like an insignficant bunch of stubborn holdouts (c.f. Twitter vs. Plurk & Jaiku). When that happens, the only people who insist on checking in with multiple services will be dorks like Robert Scoble.
Foursquare has all the buzz right now (the only way Gowalla gets mentioned in the New York Times lately is as “a competitor to Foursquare”), so I’m still betting on it to get to “majority service” first.
Here at SXSW and haven’t used or have any friends using Gowalla. They also have a minimal corporate presence. Did anyone even go to their party?
LIKE THIS ARTICLE…………
Gowalla STILL doesn’t have a Blackberry app.
Foursquare has had one for quite some time.
Sure, Gowalla directs Blackberry users to go to their mobile webpage, but meh, that sucks.
Until a service has a supported app for at least the iPhone, Android and Blackberry, I would consider it sub-par.
http://www.thingsthatarealsolikegowalla.com/