As the idea of checking in to locations quickly becomes a commodity, Foursquare is differentiating itself from the pack (see Yelp, Gowalla) by partnering with a lot of big brands. There’s been a flurry of deals showing up over the last couple weeks and I think it will only continue to snowball as other companies look to follow suit. These deals should help Foursquare start monetizing its service, but they need to be careful not to drive away users if the partnerships start to look like spam.
Here are some of the partnerships I have seen over the last few weeks.
- Bravo TV
- Zagat
- City of Chicago
- Conde Nast, Marc Jacobs
- And a few more mentioned at TechCrunch and AdAge
