Foursquare to pursue commercial opportunities
Dennis Crowley, co-founder of the location based social media tool Foursquare, has touted his firms ability to offer merchants the opportunity to target specific consumers as the site gears up to commercialise its success.
In an address to delegates of the South by Southwest media and technology conference Crowley said: “Giving merchants the ability to reach out to targeted customers is a big opportunity for us… We have an opportunity to be better at loyalty than anyone else.”
This is seeing the service look to target specific deals at patrons of cafes and restaurants but could even be extended to include such brands as Pampers, promoting the products to parents in local playgrounds.
Keen to refute any suggestion that commercialisation of the service would turn off users Crowley said: “we’re not going to do anything with the app that causes us to use it less.”
This will be achieved by emphasising the social nature of the service as Crowley explained: “I’m not convinced that people want the coupon that pushes to your pocket when you walk by the coffee shop. I want the stuff that says ‘this is the coffee shop that Alice always talks about and that you’ve never noticed before’.”