Rumor: Facebook looking to take on Foursquare with “checkins”
Location based mobile applications are all the rage right now, and the current king appears to be Foursquare. It was only a matter of time before other companies took them on, but if this new rumor is true, it’s Facebook that will be gunning for them next.
Mobile applications built around your location, and locating those in your proximity, are all the rage now thanks to so many phones and other devices now including GPS receivers. Foursquare has really taken the lead with its social game aspects that allow you to become the “mayor” of a location by visiting it enough times, unlocking badges by accomplishing tasks and so on. The success of the startup hasn’t gone unnoticed though, and there are some older companies that appear to be looking to kill Foursquare off as soon as possible.
Yelp, the well-known social review site, has already enabled “checkins” for people to tell their Yelp friends where they are at any given time. While there has been some talk about this challenge to Foursquare, it seems to not be catching on very quickly. However, a new report of a rumor by Silicon Alley Insider suggest that the behemoth known as Facebook has started toying with the idea of its own checkin system, and what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants, he gets.
According to the rumor, the new feature is in the early planning stages, and it might not even get off the ground, but if it should, Foursquare would be in definite danger. With its 350 million members, Facebook could easily knock any smaller company for a loop if it decided to copy them. The other bonus for the current king of social networks is that it is built entirely around pre-existing relationships with people, so these are people you for sure would want to know where you are, while Foursquare is more directed at meeting new people who happen to be in the same location as you.
As we said, this is still in the early stages, and it may never come to fruition, but if it does, Foursquare’s days may be numbered.
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January 29th, 2010
or facebook might just turn up with a big fat cheque