• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, March 26, 2014

Continuing to expand beyond U.S. borders, Foursquare has enlisted IMS Internet Media Services to establish a more profitable presence in Latin America.
 
Steven Rosenblatt, chief revenue officer of Foursquare, called global expansion “one of the key goals … in 2014.”
 
Later this spring, IMS plans to introduce dedicated sales teams in Brazil and Mexico to help advertisers reach consumers with campaigns using Foursquare’s ad products.
 
Foursquare’s ads charge buyers on a Cost-Per-Action basis, or when users either interact with ads, or check into a specific venues within 72 hours after seeing related ads.
 
To familiarize brands with these products and the nuances for advertisers targeting consumers in these markets, IMS will offer training programs for agencies and brand advertisers.
 
Foursquare saw its revenue rise by 600% last year, CEO Dennis Crowley said during an on-air interview with CNBC, earlier this month. During the first quarter of 2014, he said year-over-year revenue growth was on track to exceed 500%.
 
Web watchers attribute Foursquare’s growth to a shift from reward-based friend-tracking to Yelp-like local business listings and reviews.
 
Over the past five years, Foursquare estimates having collected data on 45 million community members based on roughly 5 billion check-ins. Looking ahead, Crowley has been openly optimistic about his company’s ability to parlay this data into a thriving product and service recommendation business.
 
Regardless of their ZIP code, Hispanic consumers are crazy for social media and mobile.
 
The profile of the average consumer interacting daily with TV via social media still skews 20% Hispanic, according to recent findings from the Council for Research Excellence. Hispanic consumers are also more likely to use mobile applications compared with search engines to find information about products, according to BIA/Kelsey.
 
The Foursquare deal represents a big win for IMS. Last year, Waze, a popular navigation app that has since been acquired by Google, tapped the media buying and marketing company to expand its Latin American business operations.