The location-based social networking service Foursquare has announced that it’s cruised past the landmark figure of one million check-ins during a single day.
The news comes mere days after the the company trousered a cool $20 million series in a second round of funding, adding to the $1.4 million already raised last year and giving the company an estimated worth in excess of $95m.
The New York-based startup now claims around 1.8 million signed up users, with another 15,000 users joining every day.
Checking in
The network allows users on major mobile platforms to “check in” to different venues, play ‘location games,’ earn badges and generally flout their all round man-about-towness.
Businesses are also lining up to get jiggy with Foursquare’s offering, with hefty brands like Starbucks, Domino’s and Pepsi looking to exploit its marketing potential and reward regular visitors with discounts and deals.
Are you Foursquarin’?
We’ve been extensively trialling both Foursquare and other location based services like Gowalla and Yelp, and we still remain a little unconvinced.
Apart from the obvious perils of broadcasting your whereabouts, very few people seem to be actively using the service in the UK, and the fact that we can check in to our local pub from a quarter of a mile away doesn’t bode well for businesses looking to offer discounts to regulars.
We can see the potential for location based services like Foursquare though, but suspect it’ll only get interesting when Google unleash their rumoured ‘Google Me’ service.
I had a go on Foursquare too but still can;t see the point of it. No one is using it in my town.