Filip Novotny Few social networks have been talked about as much lately as Foursquare. This is due to its controversial and unusual division into two follower applications. About Foursquare version 8.0 moreover, we can hardly speak of it as a social service, at its center there are exclusively restaurants and other places to search for, visit and then evaluate. The social functionality of the original application was then taken over to a certain extent by the newly born Swarm. This unprecedented schism has divided, along with the application, its users - some welcome the change, others reject it. Did Foursquare actually get it right?
Let's first see how popular the app looked in its early days. It was 2009 and Dennis Crowley and Navin Selvadurai decided to finally launch their dream project of a mobile geolocation service. They named it after the popular American ball game - Foursquare. They didn't have enough funding at first, so they only launched their new product in a handful of cities in the United States. It didn't take long, however, and thanks to a rich investment, they were able to expand to hundreds of cities on several continents, and in 2010, finally to the rest of the world.
Foursquare focused mainly on the social interaction of its users - checking in at businesses, collecting points, competing in tables, bargaining for the prestigious position of mayor of this or that place. Over the course of five years, a number of major updates came, often modifying the application from the ground up and trying to make it more attractive. There were changes in the list of recent check-ins, the main screen was changed in various ways, the check-in button got bigger and bigger.
However, what unfortunately did not see major changes were the just-named social functions. With the passage of time, the attractiveness of constantly logging in to various businesses began to fade away irresistibly. Check-in and collecting badges simply wasn't as fun as it used to be, and user activity slowly but surely began to stagnate. Although Foursquare won't give us exact numbers regarding the number of active accounts, the graph of the frequency of downloads of the application in the App Store speaks for itself. Around September 2013, we see a clear onset of decline, and the situation didn't look much better on Android either.
However, this did not mean that Foursquare would be completely forgotten. Despite his shortcomings, he was still in a very good position and had a lot to offer. Its users have left a huge number of tips and reviews for businesses along with their check-ins during the five years of use. The blue app was no longer just a tool for collecting points and simply following friends, it has evolved into a popular app with ambitions to compete with the current market ruler, Yelp.
In addition, despite its much better starting position, this arch-enemy of Foursquare was not able to develop a quality, full-fledged mobile application for many years. Therefore, users preferred to postpone even such a banal thing as writing a review until they sit down at the computer. To this we can also add the very prudent launch of the service outside the United States (in the Czech Republic it has only been available since July 2013) and we have to admit that Yelp did not put up much resistance to Foursquare.
Foursquare had two paths to take at the time of its incipient decline. Either try to improve the long-neglected social functions, or get rid of them completely. The management of the company solved it Solomonically and broke up the service. It set out on a path of direct confrontation with its main competitor.
After all, no one in the company denies this, the new Foursquar is commonly called the "Yelp-killer" in the office. The management is convinced that it can defeat its competitor thanks to its superiority in technology, which is why it also decided on the unforeseen steps of the last weeks. The main impetus was unfavorable results in user testing: "We looked at the results of the analysis and found that only 1 out of 20 application launches contained social interaction and at the same time the search for new places." he admits VP of Product Management Noah Weiss. The logical outcome in the thoughts of the company's management was to separate these two components.
The original Foursquare really got rid of its social aspects and bet on the best possible search, recommendation and rating of businesses - becoming a direct competitor to Yelp. However, this presents a significant problem: although the social side of the original Foursquare was far from ideal and began to tend towards routine after some time of use, this aspect made using the app more interesting and fun.
We could search for places based on what our friends liked, quickly access their listings, reviews, and so on. In short, we had a reason to return to Foursquare, if only out of habit. However, this so-called gamification is gone and there is nothing to replace it in the new Foursquare. Instead, we have to settle for the new Swarm application, which, according to official claims, was supposed to take over the previous social functionality.
However, that's not entirely true, as this new sister app only offers a fraction of that. Collecting points, outdoing friends, showing off your badge and so on - all that has disappeared. What's left is a simple app used only to share your current location. Compared to similar utilities, it offers almost nothing extra, perhaps only precise targeting and a wide list of places to log in. And also the so-called ambient check-in, i.e. the possibility to share your location automatically and without the need for manual login. Which is - how right points out server TechCrunch – a feature that perhaps none of the users showed any interest in.
On the other hand, it's fair to say that the new version of Foursquare knows what it wants to achieve (becoming a high-quality personalized recommendation app) and so far it's doing its job very well. We can't deny that to the service, and after all, we've already listed a number of excellent improvements in previous article. Even at its end, however, there were some doubts about the correctness of the application's division, and right now it's time to return to our initial question - did Foursquare actually do it right?
If we look at the current situation in purely practical terms, the decision is clear for the Czech customer. It all depends on what you actually expect from Foursquare. Or in other words, how have you used it to date. If you liked it mainly for the combination of interesting tracking of friends with the recommendation of new businesses, you will probably be very disappointed with the new version of the application. If you used Foursquare exclusively to search for good restaurants or hotels when traveling abroad, the update will come in handy.
However, for foreign users and, after all, for Foursquare itself, this question is much more unclear. Can this service, in its current form, even think about further growth or surpassing its arch-rival Yelp? Although this competition may seem harmless in our region, it is very popular abroad despite its shortcomings. Apple even chose it to enrich its arsenal map and voice assistants Crab.
On closer inspection, Yelp and Foursquare are essentially very similar, and without engaging gamification elements, it's hard to imagine how Foursquare is trying to attract more users. On the contrary, with the confusing transition to a new generation of applications, he lost the favor of some of his customers, which is also proven by user ratings in the App Store. Foursquare version 8.0 is valued by users there as a full two stars out of five, and Swarm is no better.
We can logically explain this poor result by traditional resistance to change, similar to what we witness in the case of the redesign of Facebook, Twitter or other popular services. Likewise, it's possible to logically justify Foursquare's decision to ditch the vast majority of social interaction in its app and outsource its remnants to Swarm. However, in its history, Foursquare has built precisely on this added value, which distinguished it from the competition. And that's why he sneaks in (1, 2, 3) idea that the grand redesign of the blue app is not a step for the better from Foursquare's point of view, but perhaps quite the opposite.
If I lived in the Czech Republic, I would immediately delete both apps and install YELP. This division is a fail and I will not use any app like this. They took the whole FUN part from there and now it's just check in here check in there
This change was invented by the real TheBill, who gave birth to 3,14159 substance. I don't understand how anyone could approve it. I deleted it and that's it. A real shame :-/