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Foursquare (company)

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Foursquare Labs Inc.
Company typePrivate
Industry
  • Location technology
  • Advertising technology
  • App developer tools
FoundedMarch 11, 2009; 15 years ago (2009-03-11) in New York, New York, U.S.
FoundersDennis Crowley
Naveen Selvadurai
Headquarters
New York City, New York
,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Gary Little, CEO[1]
Dennis Crowley
Number of employees
Approximately 300[2]
Websitelocation.foursquare.com

Foursquare Labs Inc., commonly known as Foursquare, is a geolocation technology company and data cloud platform based in the United States. Founded by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai in 2009, the company rose to prominence with the launch of its local search-and-discovery mobile app. The app, Foursquare City Guide, popularized the concept of real-time location sharing and checking-in.

Alongside additions and iterations to its consumer apps, the company also began to create products that leverage the location data collected via billions of check-ins.

History

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Naveen Selvadurai, co-founder of Foursquare

Launch and early years

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Co-founders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai founded Foursquare in 2008 and launched Foursquare City Guide in 2009 at SXSW.[3] Crowley had previously founded the similar project Dodgeball as his graduate thesis project in the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University and subsequently sold it to Google in 2005.[4]

In November 2009, Foursquare opened up access to its API, enabling developers to access data generated by the Foursquare app and build applications on top of that data.[5] Foursquare opened its second office, in San Francisco, the next year, shortly after reaching one million users.[6] In 2011, Foursquare began working on Pilgrim SDK, the core technology that combines stop-detection and snap-to-place functions in order to provide contextual awareness to Foursquare's apps.[7][8][9] As of January 31, 2023, Foursquare renamed its Pilgrim SDK product to Movement SDK.[10]

Swarm release

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In May 2014, the company launched Swarm, a companion app to Foursquare City Guide, that moved the social networking and location sharing aspects of the service to a separate application.[11] In August 2014, the company launched Foursquare 8.0, a completely new version of the service that shifted the focus from check-ins to focus on local search and recommendations.[12]

2015 to present

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In April 2015, Foursquare began offering location-based enterprise products for marketers and advertisers with the launch of Pinpoint.[13] The company subsequently released Attribution, a tool for media performance measurement, in February 2016,[14] and the Movement (FKA Pilgrim) software development kit, which allows developers to use Foursquare's core Movement technology to add context into their own apps and services, in March 2017.[15] Each of these tools can be used independently, or they can be bundled together.[16]

On January 14, 2016, co-founder Dennis Crowley stepped down from his position as CEO. He moved to an Executive Chairman position while Jeff Glueck, the company's COO, succeeded Crowley as the new CEO.[17][18]

In 2017, Foursquare announced its expansion in the Asia-Pacific region with partners like Tencent and Samsung, and a new office in Singapore.[19] Over the course of the three-year period from 2015 through 2017, the company's revenue grew by more than 50% each year.[20][21] In early 2018, Foursquare opened a new engineering office in Chicago.[22]

In May 2019, Foursquare bought Placed from Snap Inc.[23]

On December 6, 2019, Foursquare's Board of Directors announced the appointment of David Shim as Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board.[24]

In April 2020, Foursquare announced a merger with Factual Inc. in an all-stock deal.[25][26]

On November 5, 2020 it was announced that David Shim was stepping down as Chief Executive Officer, to be replaced by Gary Little, a member of the company's board.[27]

On May 20, 2021, Foursquare announced an agreement to acquire Unfolded, a next-generation platform for geospatial data unification, enrichment, visualization, and analytics to help solidify the company's location, geospatial technology, and developer community. Unfolded has been renamed to Foursquare Studio. [28]

In February 2022, Foursquare launched Hex Tiles,[29] a tiling system that maximizes the speed and efficiency of data analytics for businesses looking to perform large-scale geospatial analytics for decision-making purposes.

In May 2023, the company launched Foursquare Graph,[30] a geospatial knowledge graph designed to improve how businesses derive value from location data through the use of graph technology and the H3 grid system.

In May 2024, Foursquare laid off 105 employees, approximately 25% of its workforce.[31]

Funding

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Foursquare is principally funded by Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, DFJ Growth, Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners, Spark Capital, and more.[32][33] The company raised $1.35 million in its Series A round and $20 million in its Series B round.[34][35] On June 24, 2011, Foursquare raised $50 million on a $600 million valuation.[36] Their Series D round funding of $35 million was announced on December 19, 2013 and led by DFJ Growth.[37]

In January 2016, the company raised $45 million in a series E funding round led by Union Square Ventures. Morgan Stanley participated along with previous investors: DFJ Growth, Andreessen Horowitz and Spark Capital.[38] In October 2018, the company announced that it raised an additional $33 million in a series F funding round co-led by investors Simon Ventures and Naver, in addition to longstanding investor Union Square Ventures.[39]

Consumer Apps

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Foursquare City Guide

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Main article: Foursquare City Guide

Launched in March 2009, Foursquare City Guide is a local search and discovery mobile app that helps users discover new places from a community of peers.[3] The app provides personalized recommendations of places to go near a user's current location based on the user's previous visits, likes and check-in history.[40]

Foursquare Swarm

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Main article: Foursquare Swarm

In May 2014, the company launched Foursquare Swarm, a companion app to Foursquare City Guide, which migrated the social networking and location sharing aspects of the service into a separate application. Swarm acts as a lifelogging tool for users to keep a record of the places they have been, featuring statistics on the places they have been, and a search capability to recall places where they have checked in.[41] Swarm also lets users share where they have been with their friends, and see where their friends have been.

Rewards by Foursquare

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In August 2021, the company relaunched Rewards, previously Foursquare’s Panel App.[42] The app gave users the opportunity to earn points to be redeemed for gift cards in exchange for enabling background location services. The app was sunset in May 2023.

Marsbot

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Launched in May 2016, Marsbot was a location-aware tool that sent context-based suggestions about nearby places to eat and drink via text, tailored to users' preferences.[43][44] In October 2020, Foursquare introduced an audio AR version for AirPods called Marsbot for AirPods, which provided location-specific guidance through users' bluetooth headphones.[45] Marsbot was sunset in 2021.

Products and Technology

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Foursquare Graph

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Foursquare Graph is a knowledge graph that organizes disparate geospatial datasets to derive business insights. The use of graph technology introduced a time-aware dimension to all geospatial datasets, facilitating spatiotemporal analyses. Launched in May 2023,[46] it was designed to unify Foursquare’s product suite and utilize the H3 grid system in order to minimize the time and resources necessary to extract business insights from location-based queries.

Foursquare Places

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Foursquare Places is a database of venue information representing 120+ million commercial points-of-interest (POI) across 200+ countries and territories.[47] Foursquare maintains the Places database and updates the data in real time through a combination of first-party data, third-party data, and its Geosummarizer ML model.[48] The Foursquare Places API enables developers to integrate location-aware capabilities directly into their apps for services such as delivery, navigation, ride-share, and shopping.[49]

Foursquare Studio

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Foursquare Studio is a geospatial visualization and analytics platform. Foursquare Studio allows users to join large-scale data of diverse shapes and sizes for analysis through the creation, design, and sharing of interactive maps.[50][51]

Hex Tiles

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Hex Tiles is Foursquare’s proprietary analytical tiling system that utilizes the H3 global grid system to allow users to quickly process and unify large amounts of geospatial and temporal data for advanced analysis and exploration.[52]

Movement SDK

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First launched as Pilgrim SDK in 2011,[53] Movement SDK combines stop-detection and snap-to-place functions in order to provide contextual awareness to apps, using machine learning models that combine first-party GPS, Cell, Wifi, Bluetooth, Accelerometer, and time-of-day data.[54]

Patents

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Foursquare holds more than 80 patents related to geolocation technology. Notable patents including the following.

System and Method for Providing Recommendations with a Location-Based Service

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This patent describes a mobile application that offers intelligent venue recommendations based on a user's location history, as well as preferences of their social network and individuals with similar tastes. U.S. patent 8,775,351

Analyzing Impact of Ad Campaign on in-Store Visitation Behavior

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A system and method for attributing in-store visits to exposure to advertisement (“ad”) impressions associated with an ad campaign are disclosed. U.S. patent 11,734,712

Taste Extraction Curation and Tagging

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This patent involves generating taste data for entities within apps, where curated taste candidates are determined based on app information. User feedback is used to approve or reject candidates, generating taste data that can include descriptors and recommendations. U.S. patent 10,614,138

Apparatus, Systems, and Methods for Providing Location Information

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This patent focuses on an efficient location query mechanism. By representing regions of interest with polygons and dividing them into sub-polygons, the mechanism builds an index system for quick determination of whether a given location falls within any sub-polygon, enabling rapid location-based queries. U.S. patent 9,753,965

References

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  1. ^ Patel, Sahil (6 November 2020). "Foursquare CEO David Shim steps down". Wall Street Journal. Wall Street Journal.
  2. ^ "Foursquare just laid off 105 employees". Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  3. ^ a b Van Grove, Jennifer (16 March 2009). "Foursquare is the Breakout Mobile App at SXSW". Mashable. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  4. ^ Block, Ryan (12 May 2005). "Google buys Dodgeball". Engadget. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  5. ^ Siegler, MG (16 November 2009). "Foursquare Lets Others Play With Its API". TechCrunch. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  6. ^ Siegler, MG (19 August 2010). "Foursquare Checks-In To A San Francisco Office". TechCrunch. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  7. ^ Chaey, Christina (29 August 2013). "Foursquare Now Knows Where You Are, What To Do There, Even If You Don't". Fast Company. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  8. ^ Heath, Alex (1 January 2016). "Foursquare has an amazing 'superpower' that wants to take over your phone". Business Insider. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  9. ^ "2 key reasons why Foursquare's move to open up access to its location data is important". Business Insider. 2 March 2017. Archived from the original on 20 August 2017. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  10. ^ Foursquare (2023-01-31). "Movement SDK: The Future of Location Intelligence". Foursquare. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  11. ^ NICK SUMMERS, The Next Web. "Back to basics: Swarm redefines the Foursquare check-in to help you meet nearby friends." May 15, 2014. Retrieved Jan 12, 2017.
  12. ^ Hamburger, Ellis (6 August 2014). "Foursquare 8.0 review: the ultimate food-finder". The Verge. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
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  14. ^ "Foursquare's Potentially Game-Changing New Tool Can Measure Foot Traffic Generated by Digital Ads". Adweek. 22 February 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
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  16. ^ Crook, Jordan (10 July 2018). "Foursquare brings on Liz Ritzcovan as chief revenue officer". TechCrunch. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
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  28. ^ "Studio". Foursquare. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  29. ^ "Foursquare Launches Next-Generation Tiling System, Enabling Large-scale Geospatial Data Analytics within Minutes" (Press release). 16 February 2022.
  30. ^ Foursquare (2023-05-11). "The Industry's First Application of Graph Technology to Geospatial Data, Meet the Foursquare Graph". GlobeNewswire News Room. Retrieved 2023-07-11.
  31. ^ Loizos, Connie (2024-05-24). "Foursquare just laid off 105 employees". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  32. ^ Panzarino, Matthew (14 January 2016). "Foursquare Gets $45M And A New CEO To Build Out Enterprise Business". TechCrunch. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  33. ^ Isaac, Mike (14 January 2016). "Foursquare Raises $45 Million, Cutting Its Valuation Nearly in Half". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  34. ^ Ante, Spencer E. (2010-06-28). "Foursquare Locates New Funds to Expand". The Wall Street Journal.
  35. ^ Dan Frommer (2009-09-04). "Foursquare Raises $1.35 Million, Led By Union Square Ventures". Businessinsider.com. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
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  37. ^ Swisher, Kara (2013-12-19). "Exclusive: Foursquare Raises a $35 Million Round and Adds DFJ's Schuler to the Board". AllThingsD.
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  39. ^ Crook, Jordan. "Foursquare picks up $33 million Series F investment". TechCrunch. No. 2 October 2018. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
  40. ^ Gell, Aaron (1 March 2017). "The Not-So-Surprising Survival of Foursquare". The New Yorker. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  41. ^ Graver, David (8 August 2017). "A Shift In Focus From Foursquare Swarm 5.0". Cool Hunting. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  42. ^ Boland, Mike (13 August 2021). "Foursquare Revamps and Rebrands its Panel App". Localology. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  43. ^ "Foursquare's Marsbot will tell you where to eat or drink before you ask". VentureBeat. 2016-05-24. Retrieved 2023-10-20.
  44. ^ Levy, Steven. "Marsbot Is Dreaming of You | Backchannel". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2023-10-20.
  45. ^ "Foursquare's Marsbot for AirPods offers location-aware audio tips". VentureBeat. 2020-10-16. Retrieved 2023-10-20.
  46. ^ Foursquare (2023-05-11). "The Industry's First Application of Graph Technology to Geospatial Data, Meet the Foursquare Graph". GlobeNewswire News Room. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  47. ^ "Places". Foursquare. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  48. ^ MacManus, Richard (2023-02-08). "How Foursquare Transformed Itself with Machine Learning". The New Stack. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  49. ^ Boland, Mike (2021-09-28). "Foursquare Beefs Up Places API". Localogy. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  50. ^ "Foursquare to Power Geospatial Data Visualization in Amazon SageMaker". www.businesswire.com. 2022-12-05. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  51. ^ "Foursquare Studio". studio.foursquare.com. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  52. ^ "Foursquare Launches Next-Generation Tiling System, Enabling Large-scale Geospatial Data Analytics Within Minutes". www.businesswire.com. 2022-02-16. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  53. ^ Chaey, Christina (2013-08-29). "Foursquare Now Knows Where You Are, What To Do There, Even If You Don't". Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  54. ^ "Movement SDK". Foursquare. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
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