Twitter, Foursquare Team For Location-Based Expansion

As was widely expected, Twitter is partnering with Foursquare to expand its location-based efforts.

With Foursquare’s help, “you can choose to add a location to your Tweets using Twitter for Android, Twitter for iOS, twitter.com or other mobile applications,” according to Twitter’s new terms of service. “In select locations, you may also label your Tweet with the name of a specific business, landmark, or other point of interest … These locations are provided by Foursquare.”

The microblogging giant believes that Foursquare can help it surface more geographically relevant information for users, while Foursquare could certainly use the additional exposure.

Twitter’s interest in location-based social networking tools is well known. Last summer, the company bought a start-up named Mitro. Best known for a Web browser extension that allows people to store and share passwords, Mitro’s small team joined Twitter’s location team in New York, where it has been focusing on a variety of “geo-related projects.”

In 2013, Twitter was reportedly preparing to let retail brands show promoted tweets to consumers who open mobile apps within close proximity to their stores.

Foursquare, meanwhile, is trying to regain its footing after making the drastic decision to divide itself into two distinct apps. One, named Swarm, does what people have long associated with the Foursquare brand -- it allows people to check in to physical locations and become the “mayor” of local establishments. Another more Yelp-like service took the Foursquare name.

User response to Foursquare’s big split has been mixed. Last October, Foursquare ranked #923 overall in the U.S. App Store -- a huge decline from its rank of #44 in 2011, VentureBeat reported, citing data from comScore, App Annie, Google and Foursquare.

Foursquare was also recently called out for deciding to track users' locations by default -- even when its app is turned off -- and then drawing on that data to send recommendations.

Bigger picture -- the promise of location-based social networking has never been brighter. By 2016, 90% of smartphones will be enabled with GPS technology, and as a result, the global, real-time, mobile location-based advertising and marketing market is expected to reach $9 billion by 2017.

It’s no surprise, then, that Facebook recently began testing a new service that pops place-based information right into users’ News Feed. Starting in and around New York City, “Place tips” seeks to serve up “fun, useful and relevant info about the place you’re at,” Mike LeBeau, a product manager at Facebook, explains in a new blog post. If well received by users, Place tips could challenge local ratings services like Yelp, Foursquare and similar offerings from Google.

3 comments about "Twitter, Foursquare Team For Location-Based Expansion".
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  1. garrett perez from ASU, March 24, 2015 at 1:32 a.m.

    I am personally glad to see the agreement between Foursquare and Twitter. Some people would see the location based services as a threat to their privacy, however, it is useful in a lot of ways for both consumers and marketers. First, one can look at the consumer point of view. For travelers, being able to pull up twitter and see that their favorite sandwich store is right by and having a sale is great. Albeit already an easy task to find what is near you using Google location services, the Twitter and Foursquare deal makes it even easier. Plus, it adds the dimension of deals and sales going on, something Google locations does not provide. So while there may be concerns for privacy, the deal can be very useful. Also, one can just turn their location services off if they really did not want to be found. Now looking at marketers, there are many advantages. One of the largest is the possibility of growing a user and consumer base in specific locations. This is important because once location most heavily populated with consumers is found, many things can happen. One can focus marketing in others less populated areas. One can plan a promotional even in the heavily populated areas. Possibilities are endless. All in all this is a good deal for everyone, from consumer to producer.

  2. Robert Niess from MKT, March 24, 2015 at 1:38 a.m.

    By Twitter and Foursquare teaming up to have a location base expansion they will be able to market to a larger group of people. The two companies will be able to intertwine their services and offer customers more. This will also be a good thing for both Twitter and Foursquare because they will be able to market to a new customer base, those people who were either just on Twitter or on Foursquare. Now days we see a lot of companies partnering together to attract a more diverse customer base. We have seen the Internet become a big source for marketing and advertising increase over the years and by having Twitter and Foursquare partner together it is only going to increase advertising and marketing over the Internet. Overall I am very impressed with this partnership and cannot wait to see what new things that they come up with and who next they will bring into their partnership.

  3. Tory Houston from student, March 24, 2015 at 1:13 p.m.

    It is great to see that Twitter and Foursquare are pairing up. Having a Foursquare myself, I honestly never really understood the point of the app. To me, there were quite a few bugs that needed fixing. Twitter pairing up with Foursquare not only gives them exposure but also gives Foursquare status, given that Twitter is one of the top rated apps on the iTunes list and one of the most popular social media platforms. The only thing that may cause a problem is that sharing your location on the internet does get risky. Although some people may want their location to show, many times location is irrelevant in a tweet. Personally, I dont find it all that necessary to share my location information, or if I am sharing the location information it is after the fact that I have been there. I also question the look of how the location is going to be presented in the Tweet.

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