10 million? 10,000,000? 7 zeroes? We’re impressed.
Social media has always had strength in numbers, and 10 million users or consumers of any product or service is a big deal as far as we’re concerned. Foursquare recently announced they have officially reached 10 million users, and when you step back to think about this feat, it becomes even more impressive when you consider the obstacles the NY start-up has faced to date.
Starting with the idea of a mobile check-in, team Foursquare had to 1) convince people there is more utility to the service than simply having fun and 2) fight the big dogs (we’ll come back to this later). As advanced a platform as competitor SCVNGR has built to date (as the name indicates it was never simply a check-in service), CEO Seth Priebatsch has referred to his mobile platform as the “gaming layer” of the web but arguably to a detriment. While the average mobile user might think of Foursquare as a game too (because it is a game at its core), many digital marketers turn to Foursquare in lieu of SCVNGR because of it’s simplicity and concentration on the art of the “check-in”.
The other major obstacle to Foursquare’s major success to date is the omnipresent competition of giant web platforms like Facebook and Google which offer similar services—Facebook Places and Google Latitude. The good news for the NYC start-up is that founder Dennis Crowley has gone down literally the same path before and was prepared for Google’s reaction in the marketplace. Crowley founded dodgeball.com, one of the first mobile social services in the United States. It was acquired by Google in 2005 and then left out to the pasture to die.
Despite it all, Foursquare continues to grow and outpace competitors Whrrl (recently acquired by Groupon), Gowalla, and SCVNGR while working toward “fulfill[ing] their larger vision for the future.” In the meantime, Foursquare has released an infographic on their company blog to illustrate the growth of the young technology company.
A few things that caught our eye:
- Hitting 1,000,000 users in late 2010, they’ve grown 10x in size in less than half a year
- 358 million check-ins outside the U.S.
- 6,230 Snake Bar checkins in Japan
- 6,350 checkins at Weddings in City Halls, Churches, and Parks
- 6 to 1 “Yay” to “Ugh” ratio, (Foursquare users are happy!)
