Foursquare aims to be more than a location-based game with 'Explore'

Explore is similar to Google Maps, Facebook Places and other “where to eat” apps, but thanks to Foursquare's extensive database and social media features, offers an entirely new level of functionality to users. The newest apps for iPhone and Android phones can base recommendations on the time of day, on where fellow Foursquare buddies have been, and on places and lists that the user follows.

Charles Birnbaum, Foursquare's business development manager, detailed the platform's new capabilities Wednesday in a webinar organised by Ogilvy in partnership with The Wall Street Journal. The webinar was hosted by Thomas Crampton, Ogilvy’s Asia-Pacific director of 360° digital influence.

“Ideally the results are highly personalised,” Birnbaum explained in response to a question from Campaign Asia-Pacific. “For example, a friend of mine may visit Starbucks everyday for his coffee. I, on the other hand, prefer artisanal coffeeshops. We both fly to Kuala Lumpur, where we’ve never been and look for coffee on Foursquare which then, based on your graph, locates the nearest Starbucks for my friend and the nearest cafe for me.” 

Foursquare built up its following of 15 million global users (over half of which are outside the US) via its “check-in” game, in which users got to claim titles and badges that heralded them as the ‘Mayor’ of a location. As it turns out though, Foursquare views itself as more of a data company than a mobile game.

“The check-in game was dynamic and it helped us build the platform up to 5 million check-ins a day," Birnbaum said. "We took all this data and used it to make the world easier to explore and to use—that’s where we’re headed.”

Travel is, he said, the prime use-case scenario for the company’s vision. “One of the obvious challenges and barriers to adoption in this space are expensive and prohibitive data charges," he admitted. "Unfortunately there’s very little we can do about it now but we are discussing many things with international carriers.”

In terms of monetisation, Foursquare has no plans to charge brands for the services it currently offers, but will instead add an additional level of premium services that it can monetise. “We also have no plans to monetise user data—that would be a violation of the trust our users have placed with us," he said. "Instead we want to roll out a user experience where most of our users are focused on using Foursquare as a tool to explore their city. What we do plan to monetise is how merchants and brands are already interacting with people. For example, leaving content tied to a location or rewarding people for checking it. We plan to charge for premium versions of these solutions.”

Also on Foursquare’s product roadmap is the ability to create crowdsourced lists that users can follow or use to hunt down, for example, the 50 best hamburger joints in Hong Kong. “Our lists feature is still only a few months old, but this is something we want to get activated, although I can’t speak to a product timeline.”

Ultimately, Foursquare wants to transition from a game to a social research tool that users turn to as their go-to guide and reference.