Mobile internet lbs can only "check-in"?

Introduction: As the mobile internet is one of the most concerned about the hot spots, all kinds of lbs application has been a large number of emerging, but its development is more and more industry peers clear understanding, lbs is only a functional feature or can support a product? How to add stickiness and user core requirements? LBS vendors are also making various attempts. Goby, founder and CEO Mark Watkins of the United States venture capital, published an article on ReadWrite to delve into the development of lbs, and concluded that "check-in" can only change the fate of the dead by finding more in-depth user needs and making the wider public accept.

The full text reads as follows:

In the past year, "Check-in" is undoubtedly one of the most popular technology hotspots, in the major science and technology news, those lbs start-ups such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, britekite, etc. become the object of the competition. Industry giants are also quick to follow, with Yelp introducing "Check-in" features, Facebook launching "Facebook Places", and Google latitude upgrades to merge the original "login" and "exit" functions, but the fact is that the trend is not very well developed.

Let's take a look at Foursquare and Facebook data. First of all, it is worth affirming that Foursquare attracts a large number of users (recently Foursquare announced that the number of users reached 8 500 000), which is the total number of users rather than the more meaningful active users. However, in the case of continuous surge in user volume, according to Compete.com data, its web traffic has been declining for 5 consecutive months, web traffic does not reflect the overall user situation, but is not a positive factor.

July 2010, Foursquare users 2 million users, daily check-in 1 million times. By 2010, the number of users had risen to 5 million, but the daily check-in had only increased by one to 2 million, and check-in activity had dropped from 0.5 to 0.4, which also meant a large number of zombie users.

Facebook's performance is even worse, as a new push with a massive user base, Facebook places at least 30 million users. Yet Facebook places offers less value than Foursquare, with no more services but a bland statement "I'm at Starbucks". As a result, early survey data showed that Facebook's "check-in" performance was far less than Foursquare.

One day, I planned to go to the New York Ace Hotel, where the digital elite was gathered (Foursquare's data showed that the Ace Hotel was the largest single check-in place in the world), found the hotel was overcrowded, I was very difficult to cross the shop door, basically can not find a place to sit down, but in such a place, I stayed for two hours, only to find three people signed in.

Why does "check-in" die?

In 2011, "Check-in" will die, and you may have seen the trend taking place. How many of your friends around you have been "signed in" and "broadcast"? How many times have you received information like "I'm somewhere in Starbucks"? As I understand it, even in the IT heavy use of people, not more than 10% users will often in any one of the services "check-in", and the frequency is declining. Some people may often use the "privacy" mode to sign in, but this has no effect on the development of LBS.

Yelp and Facebook have a huge advantage in users, who are purely social on Facebook and looking for desirable hotels on Yelp. "Check-in" service can not increase the number of users, and can not help them focus on core services, it is also difficult to make "check-in" as the main user activities. Many products have recognized this and immediately abandoned the "check-in", Britekite will be "check-in" removed, and Gowalla is the integration of Facebook and Foursquare "check-in" services.

However, these decline does not mean that Gowalla, Foursquare, MyTown, loopt these "check-in" as the core of the lbs start-up enterprises to collapse. Only they need to go beyond "check-in" to find deeper user needs. The same is true for leading companies such as Google and Facebook, whose "check-in" services will only languish unless they provide better services.

Knowing why the "check-in" service is dead, let's talk about which areas are deeper and more sustainable.

Why do users "sign in"?

1. Find people nearby. People will be pleasantly surprised to meet friends in the same place, and it is also useful to meet people at the Convention. This is the most basic value of "check-in".

2. Earn points and rewards. Whether it's in Foursquare or Scvngr, people want to get discounts, free appetizers or discounted coffee. This business is involved in early lbs services.

3. Event record. Every time I go to a new place, I usually check in and out to see if I've been here before.

4. Increase personal influence. Although most people are not keen on this, it is also a development direction. "Check-in" can broadcast people's activities and help build personal brands and influence online.

Why can't these four directions lead to the rapid development of lbs vendors?

1. Getting acquainted with friends this trait is popular in different urban densities. If you're in New York, then congratulations, the chance to meet friends in the 10 district of New York is very high, and from this area to another area is also very fast, but if you are in Los Angeles is another situation.

2. Our obsession with a new game will not normally take more than two weeks, and the game will be novel but limited to shelf life. Similarly, "sign in" and get rewarded in a sense is also a low viscosity and short life cycle game.

3. Personal records as a product value of the time required longer, can be hand-held electronic record space is a long-term "check-in" meaning, but I am not sure users really need this service. The record doesn't make much sense unless you often go out.

4. Personal branding activities are more common among digital elites-blogs, social media. The problem for these people is not just that they don't "sign in" but rather tell them why they should "sign in."

How to make "check-in" popular?

At present, "check-in" is still only popular in the technology circle, what methods can make it accepted by the public?

Social. If I see my friend doing it all the time, maybe I will be like him. But the current situation is that more and more people use "privacy mode" check-in, blocking the virus-type cycle. So to find a social way to tell people where you are or where you're going, the privacy model is the key.

Business model. If I can keep getting the financial benefits from checking in, I will continue. But to build a localized business model has a high challenge, Groupon does well, and the localized business model based on Check-in must have a higher degree of materiality to change user habits.

There must be a preferential place to restrict the conduct of the transaction and not to facilitate the user to go to the store. A book will get a 10 to 20 dollar discount on Groupon, so a real discount will attract me to the store. And I didn't find such an example on Facebook or Foursquare, knowing that I'm not near my destination.

Photo. Sharing photos At some point is the main driver of Facebook's photo-sharing feature, and users are also happy to browse photos from friends, and a photograph is far more appealing than an address statement. Facebook photos are fun to share, but I'm happy to share a moment with Facebook, and I don't know what it's necessary to add geographic information.

Geographical exploration. The influence and flaw of check-in is that it is an afterthought, and its core value is to show where you are at the moment. The downside is that it doesn't help us make any decisions, but simply post-identify and broadcast afterwards. If you want to know where to eat or where to play, checking in doesn't help. If you want to create a change in the user's influence, you need to provide information before the user decides and not later, this is the difficulty of signing in.

The large check-in service has supported real-world exploration, but if Foursquare's app encourages me to broadcast the places I'm going to sign up for the weekend, or to tell me that those are the most popular check-in points, it will explode with great power, but Foursquare has not yet launched the service.

Facebook places is more limited to whether you've tried a search site on Facebook, and Facebook's mobile app only informs you where you are, and you can't search to see if your friend has recommended a location, and you can't recommend to your friends what you're doing, just your location.

In 2011, check-in as a service is to find a new road (best case) or death (worst case scenario). Depends on the success of discovering core values instead of providing badges and self broadcasting. may develop into coupons and discounts, but will clash with Groupon and Facebook models. May develop into some form of referral site and exploration services, or personal travel products. Foursquare's latest product features will be similar in this direction.

The real opportunity is here, the Check-in service has a huge amount of data to put into this mode, but unless the public can easily find the personal value of the check-in service, otherwise they will not become users, check-in will become technical toys.

lbs new case: Life360 How to increase 1 million users in 10 weeks

ReadWrite's other article Life360 the number of users in the home application has reached 2 million, and it is worth noting that the latest 1 million users were added within 10 weeks. Life360 has long been a concern, winning the 2008 Google Android Developer contest and millions of bonuses for multiple funds, including Google and Facebook. Although not the only such application, LIFE360 has made a very good profit.

Life360 's fiery focus is to give "check-in" new value, in other LBS vendors can not provide the reason why users use, LIFE360 provides a clear and clear service: through check-in and GPS positioning to enable parents and children to interact. Parents asked their children to "sign in at night and let me know where you are and it's okay." "(Translate/Yang Dongjie)

Source of English: 2011:the year the Check-in died

Source: CSDN Compilation