(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)
So everyone who reads Digital Buzz would have heard about Facebook Places by now, but really, unless you’re in the US, you’ve not had an opportunity to experience exactly what Facebook Places is. So here is the demo video from the official Facebook YouTube Channel.
Facebook Places to me, will ultimately kill off Gowalla & Foursquare over the next few years in the looming battle for the GeoSocial Check In world. That’s a pretty big call with all the VC funding those guys have been getting, but what people probably don’t understand right now, is that Facebook Places isn’t just another location based check in service, and I don’t think it’s even meant to compete directly with them, Facebook Places provides the API that will connect the next generation of mobile applications, websites and beyond.
Think of Facebook Places as if it was the “Like Button”, that button, allowed Facebook to become part of every website in the world. So when you step back and look at the potential of Facebook places, that platform, can now become part of any website, mobile application or campaign that can utilise knowing a user (and their friends) location. Just think about that for a while, it’s bigger than you think…
I’ll try to post some more in-depth thoughts on the potential for marketers with Facebook Places over the coming weeks (things like Geo-Tagging your friends at locations is going to be pretty exciting), but that may just require me to take a trip to the US to try it out. Spare ticket anyone…?
I think the edge Gowalla & Foursquare have is the game dynamic that keeps people coming back to the service.
But with a 500 million user base and an open API it’s only a matter of time until a developer unleashes the Places version of a check-in game.
Can you imagine a Places equivalent of Farmville? It could be more popular than Foursquare overnight.
Thanks for sharing this Aden.
As I mentioned over on your LinkedIn post, I am interesting in getting my head around location-based social networks in general (am a fan of Foursquare but also interested in Gowalla, Yelp, and now Facebook Places) Do you have any information about usage of these services in Australia, and in particular their uptake by businesses AND consumers? Particularly retail businesses in Australia.
Best,
Tony
One of the guys in this video is a ringer for the actor Alan Cumming
I don’t think the much-vaunted game dynamic is enough to sustain FourSquare and certainly Gowalla (much as I preferred it in many ways to FourSquare) is a small-hoper at only 390,000 users.
Current location stuff is over-hyped. Foursquare has fewer than 3 Million users (I know, I kill for 3M users, but, hey…) and Facebook’s arrival on the scene is surely a hammer blow to those numbers rising significantly (I know they’re reporting an increase since Place launched, but that’s likely due to it getting much publicity as a side-mention in the wake of massive Facebook publicity.)
It’s niche. And worse, more than any other social network or app I’ve known in the last 4 years, it’s got many people I know who’ve been using it for the last year going ‘meh’ and wondering why they’re bothering to keep checking in. Badges? Mayoral pizzas? It’s just not happening (in the UK anyway).
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