All the recent news about Facebook — from its founder being named Time magazine’s Person of the Year to Goldman Sachs placing a $450 million bet on its future profitability — makes it clear that social networking platforms are hot commodities. It’s also clear, however, that not all social networking platforms are created equal. So, while Facebook continues to attract hordes of new users and piles of cash from investment bankers, platforms such as Foursquare and Gowalla — known generically as “location-based services” — are living a lonelier existence.
I agree that the social function, helping people find each other or new places, does not work all that well in the pure checkin-checkout solutions. Location-based services are not limited to social networking though, as an ingredient that enhances existing content and functions or as foundation for new ones it can go into many directions.
The services this opinion focuses on presented themselves as games when starting out. As a game the value of virtual rewards or badges matters less, we even see games that get to a point where virtual goods get a real-world value. With compulsive gaming it's also not so strange to feel that: "I'm not completely sure why I'm doing it", just like Neil McIntosh, editor of The Wall Street Journal's European website.
As businesses though, it's true that if no enough people are willing to play, these services will need to change or at least add more function. Looks like this will be real-world rewards and discounts and a lot of players are getting into that field.
Seems like anybody doing anything with (mobile) technology and internet will eventually run into Facebook, Google or Apple. But maybe these companies cannot (easily) move into any subject they like. It's interesting to know that Google bought a service similar to Foursquare called Dodgeball in 2005. The founders left Google in 2007 and one of them, Dennis Crowley, later started Foursquare. see: http://venturebeat.com/2009/03/10/dodgeball-founder-pegs-google-in-the-face-with-foursquare/
I think there will be room for services that focus on combining location with other functions, like gaming or a focus on content for specific niches. A play focused purely on search of social networking will indeed have a hard time beating the big guys.
I've also summed up your points on locationfever.com in combination with my opinion.
How hard can it be? You want to provide a service that gets your users incentives for frequent consumption of the business services or products? Negotiate with the business executive ownership FIRST then list THOSE companies on your website. That way,people will be driven to those businesses knowing they can indeed receive preapproved incentives and the website can negotiate advertising programs for successful ad clients. How dare these websites allow their current systems to infer a business will grant them incentives just because a consumer uses an app on their smartphone! It's a bait and switch scenario and it's obvious the consumer is speaking loud and clear by not participating. Thanks for a good article that helped me to better understand how these sites work. I never had a good feeling about them.
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Location-Based Services Are Becoming Social Network Outcasts
Posted by: Sidney Hill January 5, 2011 05:00 AMAll the recent news about Facebook — from its founder being named Time magazine’s Person of the Year to Goldman Sachs placing a $450 million bet on its future profitability — makes it clear that social networking platforms are hot commodities. It’s also clear, however, that not all social networking platforms are created equal. So, while Facebook continues to attract hordes of new users and piles of cash from investment bankers, platforms such as Foursquare and Gowalla — known generically as “location-based services” — are living a lonelier existence.
The services this opinion focuses on presented themselves as games when starting out. As a game the value of virtual rewards or badges matters less, we even see games that get to a point where virtual goods get a real-world value. With compulsive gaming it's also not so strange to feel that: "I'm not completely sure why I'm doing it", just like Neil McIntosh, editor of The Wall Street Journal's European website.
As businesses though, it's true that if no enough people are willing to play, these services will need to change or at least add more function. Looks like this will be real-world rewards and discounts and a lot of players are getting into that field.
Seems like anybody doing anything with (mobile) technology and internet will eventually run into Facebook, Google or Apple. But maybe these companies cannot (easily) move into any subject they like. It's interesting to know that Google bought a service similar to Foursquare called Dodgeball in 2005. The founders left Google in 2007 and one of them, Dennis Crowley, later started Foursquare. see: http://venturebeat.com/2009/03/10/dodgeball-founder-pegs-google-in-the-face-with-foursquare/
I think there will be room for services that focus on combining location with other functions, like gaming or a focus on content for specific niches. A play focused purely on search of social networking will indeed have a hard time beating the big guys.
I've also summed up your points on locationfever.com in combination with my opinion.