Foursquare

Hi,

today I'm going to talk about this site: www.foursquare.com. Explain how it works, and how they intend to be profitable.

as you can see, Foursquare is a social mobilenetwork, where we can find your friends, city guides, and kind of a game. Its user base surpass 300,000 people.

Dennis Crowley, created a Mobile social network, that gives to their members the opportunity of finding their friends in the city. They can also give feedback of the place where they are: restaurant, gym, or other. He was smart enough to create a game that supports this inflow of information.

“Foursquare has revealed that its two main methods of making money will be advertising and analytics. Foursquare started this with what it calls "Mayor" deals: small ads that offer up coupons to nearby businesses. Foursquare has also added sponsors to its leaderboards, and it has also created custom badges for companies like the Bravo television network and chip giant Intel ( INTC - news - people ). By turning the ad campaigns into a game, companies hope to increase customer engagement.” In www.forbes.com

This big potencial business is getting attention for big Venture Capitalists: “What do Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and Redpoint Ventures have in common? Besides being tier one venture capitalists, at least one thing: They are all fighting furiously to be the lead investor in Foursquare’s next venture round. All that competition is driving the valuation massively upwards, too. A couple of weeks ago we’d heard that the deal would likely be closed at around a $50 million valuation. Today we’ve confirmed that the final price will likely be $60 million – $70 million. They’re raising around $10 million, which means when it’s all over Foursquare will be worth up to $80 million on paper.” In www.techcrunch.com

Interview with its creator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPtujpFHb_U

Links of interest:
How to make money in foursquare:
http://www.inc.com/guides/making-money-foursquare.html
Future business of foursquare:
http://econsultancy.com/blog/5381-staying-cool-and-making-money-can-be-hard-to-do
How foursquare intends to make money:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/07/iphone-mobile-android-technology-data-companies-10-foursquare.html