Posted on December 21, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton
Location based apps by the numbers & the month @FourSquare passed them all, but why?
As we get closer to 2010 one of the items I’m sure you have read on probably every end of the year predictions post is that location based apps are going to be big in 2010. Locations based apps are not new for example, Brightkite has been around since 2005 and was clearly growing as one of the leaders in the location based market. I’m not sure who came next but soon to launch was Whrrl, Loopt, and now we have Gowalla and Foursquare. Foursquare has been all of the buzz latley and by looking at the compete.com numbers they’re on one roller coster ride up the vistors chart.
I was told in August is when they switch domains from playfoursqare.com to foursquare.com but regardless from September to now Foursquare their traffic growth has been amazing. Moving into 2010 not only Foursquare but all of the location based apps will have tons of competition with new apps launching such as stalqer, nextstop, TriOut. I’m sure more to launch in 2010 as looking back on a 2008 post from Read Write Web saying Location-Based Social Networking to Generate $3.3 Billion by 2013.
Besides all of the buzz as being labeled as the next Twitter by the early adopters and social media enthusiast what do think is the reason for Foursquare recent growth?
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Written by Wayne Sutton
Wayne is the business development/marketing strategist for TriOut and partner at OurHashtag. For more, follow SocialWayne.com on Twitter, Buzz, and Facebook. Also check out the SocialWayne Podcast in iTunes. See all posts by Wayne Sutton.
Tags: brightkitefoursquareGeo-Locationgowallalocation-basedlooptnextstopstalqerwhrrl
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21. Dec, 2009
New blog post: Location based apps by the numbers & the month @FourSquare passed them all, but why? http://socialwayne.com/p1ba
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21. Dec, 2009
Location based apps by the numbers & the month @FourSquare passed them all, but why? http://bit.ly/76aEgb via @waynesutton
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21. Dec, 2009
RT @waynesutton Location based apps by the numbers & the mo @FourSquare passed them all, but why? http://socialwayne.com/p1ba
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21. Dec, 2009
RT @waynesutton Location based apps by the numbers & the month @FourSquare passed them all, but why? http://bit.ly/6ykixP
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08. Jan, 2010
Biggest problem with @compete's 4SQ/Gowalla/Loopt/Brightkite usage trends? No mobile! http://j.mp/8NZzC5 /cc @waynesutton
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Wayne Sutton helps individuals, startups and businesses succeed in understanding how to communicate on the social web via brand strategy, social networks and location-based services. Wayne is the business development/marketing strategist for TriOut and partner at OurHashtag.
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Visit My Website
December 21, 2009
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Dan London said:
I’d love to see stats on APP usuage. I rarely ever go to the websites since I have most of the ones you listed on my iPhone. Do you have data on app usage to compare?
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December 21, 2009
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Paul Stamatiou said:
Hey Wayne – just saw your tweet about having WP 2.9 posting issues (which you obviously fixed). I have yet to publish anything on 2.9 but have it installed – what issue did you run into exactly?
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December 21, 2009
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Wayne Sutton said:
Dan, sorry I don’t have any data on the usage but that’s a good idea. I’ll look into it.
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December 21, 2009
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Wayne Sutton said:
Paul, I was crossing my fingers that I would post. WP timed out on me and when to a 404 page instead of just giving me the post is published message. .
Let me know if you have any of the same problems. Thanks for the comment.
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December 21, 2009
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Jay Dolan said:
It’s the constant Twitter promotion. I see check-ins all the time, and it creates brand recognition. The other services aren’t building that name recognition, and it makes them suffer.
Before this post, I have never heard of Gowalla or Whrrl. I haven’t heard of Loopt really since the iPhone App Store Launch, and I hear and see less of Brightkite everyday.
Are Foursquare’s posts shameless Twitter spam? Maybe. Does it work? Definitely.
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December 23, 2009
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Brandon Uttley said:
Wayne, I think Foursquare has roared to the “four” front because it’s made geo-tagging fun. The game-like aspects of getting points and “competing” against your friends is much more compelling than, say, just checking in using Brightkite or another service. Combine that with the huge potential for businesses to offer instant coupons and it’s clear why Foursquare is taking off.
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January 8, 2010
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Jeff Schnitzer said:
Hey, don’t forget Mobcast! We added over 45,000 users last month – our first in operation.
That said, these visitor numbers are fairly useless, since I assume (as with Mobcast) that 90% of people use the phone apps and never bother with the website.