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'Here I Am!' GPS Location Apps Have Limited Appeal

February 8, 2010

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Online services that send updates on a person's location are all the rage in Silicon Valley, but they have far to go before they'll be adopted elsewhere

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'Here I Am!' GPS Location Apps Have Limited Appeal

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(Free-Press-Release.com) February 8, 2010 --For Diane Bisgeier, marking her turf with her iPhone has become as regular as morning coffee. Bisgeier "checks in" at restaurants, cafés, and theaters around San Francisco using Gowalla, a popular iPhone app that lets people broadcast their locations, find friends, and compete to see who's shown up somewhere the most.

"I don't feel complete unless I check in" when I arrive, says Bisgeier, 41, who has also logged her location using iPhone apps from Gowalla competitors Foursquare and Yelp. By announcing her movements around town on Gowalla, Bisgeier, a marketing director for medical software maker Soar BioDynamics , says she's able to meet friends spontaneously and feel as if she "left [my] mark" on places. "It's because I'm hypersocial," she says. "That's why I love it."

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As Silicon Valley's obsessions go, the virtual parlor games proffered by startups Foursquare and Gowalla rank among the more curious. New York and Silicon Valley techies have lately taken to whipping out their smart phones when they cross the transom of restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and train stations, firing up Foursquare's or Gowalla's applications, and checking in to mark their turf. Enthusiasts say they like the bragging rights that come with being the most frequent patron of a place, and that the apps let them serendipitously meet up with friends. Frequent patrons can become the "mayor" of a venue by playing Foursquare, or stamp a virtual passport in Gowalla's game. Hundreds of merchants offer free beer, coffee, and pizza to the top denizens of their establishments. "In the Bay Area, it has turned into a pretty valuable utility," Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg and an investor in both Foursquare and Gowalla, says of the software.
The Mobile-Advertising Angle

The popularity of the apps has attracted notice from other Web startups that rely on local advertising. Foursquare boasts nearly 300,000 users, and Gowalla has more than 100,000. On Jan. 15, Yelp—a Web site that reviews shops, restaurants, and night spots and that on Jan. 27 announced a round of funding worth up to $100 million—introduced the ability for users of its iPhone app to check in at businesses.

Now, as tech industry heavyweights such as Google (GOOG), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Twitter, and IAC/Interactive (IACI) try to capitalize on the smart phone explosion with mobile ads that target people where they congregate, startups compiling a trove of data about users' migratory habits could make attractive acquisition targets for those companies. At one point in January, a Foursquare user was checking into a location every second, the company said.