Foursquare launches new version to recommend merchant features to users

Recently, according to the New York Times web page, Foursquare will be fully redesigned for its applications, adding the ability to recommend businesses to users to make more effective use of more than 2 billion of the company's geographic and preference information collected over the past few years, and the introduction of a new version will bring a different experience to the user.

Two years ago, Foursquare was a star in New York's start-up company. Celebrities and major brands flocked to the mobile app, and technology giants such as Facebook and Yahoo scrambled to make an offer.

The founders of Foursquare rejected the takeover proposals and believed they had more potential as independent companies. Since then, the noise of the foursquare has cooled and slowed. All this made Foursquare have to prove to the outside world that he had made the right decision.

local time this Thursday, Foursquare will announce a major redesign of its application. Foursquare CEO Dennis Crolly (Dennis Crowley) and another co-founder said the revision represents the Foursquare's truest vision, turning Foursquare into a referral service for rivals such as Yelp.

But Foursquare must address the problem of shorter attention cycles for mobile applications. Foursquare's efforts prove that it is extremely difficult for startups to maintain early growth and gain mass market success in rapidly changing technology industries.

"The essence of the game is that there will be another creative or technical appearance every once in a while," said Susan Etlinger, analyst at consulting firm Altimeter Group, Susan Atlinger. "Many companies are able to build a public image." They can be the center of attention. But it is difficult to continue to provide people with an attractive and valuable service. ”

Essentially, Foursquare lets people share their geographic information with their friends, and when they share it, they think about random social gatherings, or just for sharing. There are also elements of the game, such as "check-in" to a new restaurant every time you get points. This DNA will not change in the new edition. But the new version of the core is turning to a button called "Explore", which will be based on time, the popularity of nearby places and the user's past attendance record to recommend the destination to the user.

For example, users who are accustomed to signing in at the bakery will see more about the bakery in the "Explore" column.

"It's still a way to attract new users in order to get the check-in points and medals to come to Foursquare," he said. "But the bigger point is to make use of the rich data we've accumulated to interact with various places and turn it into recommendations." ”

Crowley said that since 2009, the company has collected more than 2 billion data, covering 20 million users like where and when to go to the information. Foursquare can use this data to provide users with detailed information about a specific location, such as letting users know if his/her favorite restaurant is less than usual today, and if so, it would be more appropriate to eat there today.

"This is the first new feature we think users will like," Crowley said.

Foursquare has yet to generate huge revenue, Crowley declined to say how much the new program will boost revenue growth. However, it is not difficult to imagine that a merchant can pay a certain amount to Foursquare to receive preferential treatment.

Foursquare the new design placed high expectations. During the year ending April 2011, foursquare active users grew by 750%, while active users grew by 135% per cent in the year to April. The growth remains strong, but far behind the explosive growth of other social services such as Instagram. Foursquare new users are about 1 million a month.

Foursquare says the basic check-in function is not as popular as it used to be, as many users now simply look at their friends ' dynamics or search for bars and restaurants.

"Foursquare has something that attracts users, but it needs more than just this simple feature, but it needs to be part of the consumer experience," says Ray Valdes, a Gartner mobile and social networking analyst, Rebaldes.

As the company matures, Foursquare employees also begin to churn, such as Tristanvolche, head of business development (Tristan Walker), the company's first community manager Territh Antenatez (chrysanthe tenentes), And another co-founder, Naven Sair Vadulai (Naveen Selvadurai).

Salvadurai left Foursquare early this May and said in his blog that he wanted to do something new.

Crowley says that employee turnover is a normal pain in the process of growing up. Since 2010, the start-up company has expanded from its initial staff to 120 employees today and has offices in New York, San Francisco and London.

According to people familiar with the matter, Foursquare expelled Salvadurai to bring in more experienced executives to help expand future operations.

Foursquare also faces a more intense competition than a few years ago. Local advertising and group buying markets are now very popular, as Facebook, Google (Weibo), Twitter, Yelp and even Groupon are starting to focus more on providing location-based services. The redesigned Foursquare will be able to compete more calmly with these giants.

Altimeter analyst Aitlinge that so far no competitors have really replaced Foursquare status. Many of Foursquare's early rivals, such as Loopt, Gowalla, WHRRL, brightkite and hot potato, have disappeared, either out of the business or closed after being acquired.

Crowley, unwilling to tell when the company will be able to launch a profit-generating function, said Foursquare had enough money to support "years time", implying that the company had 72 million dollars from a VC agency and was not in a hurry to make a profit.

Foursquare is also trying to help corporate customers leverage their data. American Express, for example, allows card users to bind bank accounts to Foursquare, and when they sign up in some stores and restaurants and pay with credit cards, they get coupons and credits.

Crowley said that such cooperation is only the beginning, and that the future will be with the automotive navigation system manufacturers and emerging mobile device manufacturers.

"We are ready to work with the next major new technology," he says. "Perhaps one day we will be able to be the underlying data provider for all these services." “