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Foursquare cofounder Dennis Crowley isn't afraid of big bad Facebook. At least, that's what he's telling us.
Crowley's Foursquare, the still-fledgling service that tells you where your friends are hanging out, is suddenly facing an existential threat from 400 million member social network Facebook.
Facebook plans to clone Foursquare's central service -- the ability for site members to use their phones to "check-in" from restaurants and bars -- and make it a mere Facebook feature.
But Foursquare cofounder Dennis Crowley says there's something Facebook can't clone: the real-life friendships between Foursquare users.
"Facebook used to be who your friends are, now it's everyone," Dennis told us in an interview. "Foursquare is more tightly curated to who you want to have as your check-in friends. Facebook is good place for status updates and sharing photos, not to keep tabs on where people are going.
That's right Facebook, Dennis Crowley says your social network is now a place where people will become "friends" with people they aren't actually real-life friends with.
On Foursquare, his argument goes, users are only "friends" with people they truly wouldn't mind running into during a night out.
Here's the main problem with Dennis's very sound argument: Facebook has 400 million monthly users. Even if "checking-in" with Facebook only catches on with a small percentage of the site's users -- such a userbase could easily dwarf Foursquare's half a million users.
If you're rooting for Dennis and Foursquare -- and who doesn't pull for the underdog -- the ultimate reason to believe in Foursquare is that its very existence depends on surving this battle. It has to win or it dies. Facebook, meanwhile, could give up on check-ins and still go onto a huge IPO in 2011. If the going gets rough in this competition, Facebook has no reason not to get out.
Update: Dennis adds in the comments that there's more to Foursquare than "it's highly curated social graph." He says the company is focused on offering the best "elements of gaming, recommendation services, special offers from local merchants, etc." And that's its killer feature.
Here's the comment:
Er, I think this is taken a little of of context. Jay and I were talking about the how the social graph looks different across different services (e.g. how Twitter is a good mix of friends & public figures / celebrities for some) and how the social graph of services evolves over time (e.g. how many of us said that with Facebook we're *only* going to add our real life friends.. before we all started getting friend requests from our Mom & Dad and friends parents).
This post seems to imply that foursquare thinks it's greatest asset is it's highly curated social graph. I don't think this is the case at all (esp as it's something both Facebook and Twitter could replicate with great "lists / groups" features).
As check-ins start to become a commodity - a feature offered by Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yelp - the advantage will go to whoever can make a checkin more interesting / fun/ relevant.
This will require combining elements of gaming, recommendation services, special offers from local merchants, etc.
It's all about the *reason and motivation and incentive* behind checking-in. This is what we're focused on - and what we feel we can do better than any other player in the space. "
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In a deal seen as a vote of confidence in the Indonesian technology sector, US Web giant Yahoo has acquired mobile social networking service Koprol and intends to take the homegrown start-up to the world.
Launched less than two years ago, Koprol is a location-based microblogging site that keeps people informed about the latest events around Jakarta and is accessible via mobile phones.
With around 75,000 users, it lets users see which other users are nearby and enables them to share tips, pictures and other information with one another in real-time.
It also allows users to rate shops, restaurants and other local businesses. Yahoo bought PT SkyEight, the Barito, South Jakarta-based software development company that built and owns Koprol, for an undisclosed sum.
"We are now part of the Yahoo family,"
Koprol co-founder and chief creative officer Satya Witoelar said at a news conference announcing the deal on Tuesday. "This means a lot for the technology industry in Indonesia." "We decided to acquire Koprol because of its local content and its suitability for young users of Yahoo, especially users of its mobile application," said Yvonne Chang, Yahoo Southeast Asia's managing director.
She said Yahoo was eager to make Koprol available in 38 markets worldwide via its mobile applications. Chang said Yahoo first became interested in Koprol at its Yahoo Hack Day in Jakarta last November. "It was love at first sight," she said. Yahoo will initially make Koprol available via its Yahoo Indonesia Web site and will possibly also look to feature it on the Yahoo international Web site, Chang said.
"We will develop and invest in Koprol, and we will let it flow according to the site's vision," she said, adding that she was confident Koprol could be launched onto the global stage by using Yahoo technology.
Chang said Yahoo believed there was massive potential for Koprol's geolocation technology. Satya said Koprol had just launched a BlackBerry application for its users and that it was planning to develop mobile applications for iPhone and Android Google's mobile platform.
Prominent Indonesian blogger Wicaksono, also known by his online name Ndoro Kakung, said the acquisition proved a world-class company would not hesitate to acquire a local Web start-up if its content was good. "Koprol has a good chance to go global but it will also depend on Yahoo's promotion regionally and globally," he said, adding that Koprol should focus on seeking feedback from users.
Wicaksono said locally developed Web sites that wanted to go global needed to offer a universal service that people from all over the world could use, as well as being in English.
Muhammad Jumadi, secretary general of the Indonesian Telecommunications Users Group, said he was proud that an Indonesian company has caught the attention of Yahoo. "It's proof that our human resources and technology are the equal of other countries," he said.
The acquisition could be a catalyst and lead to more international recognition of Indonesian technology, Jumadi said. However, he lamented the fact that Koprol had chosen to be acquired by a major international company early on and had not attempted to expand internationally by itself.
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