After talking scale and product at Web 2.0 Summit, moderator John Heilemann started asking CEO Dennis Crowley about the competitive landscape, “Has Groupon made your life difficult?”
Crowley answered that with regards to Foursquare and Groupon, he still doesn’t know whether the latter company has had a net positive or negative effect on the former,”They’re getting people warmed up to the idea that you can build a customer base.”
Then Heilemann turned to the Google and Facebook rip offs both Facebook and Google Places.”Does that scare the shit out of you?” Heilemann asked Crowley. “It’s one of the most challenging things to deal with.” Crowley said he looked upon the competition with an attitude of “They’re either going to kill us or we’re going to survive this.”
“It is stressful, but looking at how we’re going to survive the Facebook onslaught is good for the company,” Crowley implied that trying to be everything on the Internet wasn’t the best strategy for Facebook. He referred to Facebook’s niche as communications, and Foursquare’s niche “connecting people offline.”
Despite encroaching competitors, the tempting acquisition target would stay likely independent even though he did not rule out acquisition, “The only thing we want to do is get the product to where we want it.”
Foursquare is a geographical location based social network that incorporates gaming elements. Users share their location with friends by “checking in” via a smartphone app or by text message. Points are awarded for checking in at various venues. Users can connect their Foursquare accounts to their Twitter and Facebook accounts, which can update when a check in is registered. By checking in a certain number of times, or in different locations, users can collect virtual badges. In addition, users...
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