

Leaked Pitch Deck Reveals How Foursquare Plans To Make Money - kschua
http://au.businessinsider.com/leaked-pitch-deck-reveals-exactly-how-foursquare-plans-to-make-money-2013-4

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coloneltcb
Sad that this was deck was leaked on ValleyWag on Monday, but because Gawker
is blacklisted from HN, it didn't make the front page until a crappy re-blog
from BusinessInsider came out.

I think HN is way too aggressive in banning domains (or at least not
transparent enough about which are banned and why).

For instance, I submitted this really interesting piece today on Buzzfeed's
FWD tech vertical: [http://www.buzzfeed.com/joshmiller/fwdus-breaks-its-first-
pr...](http://www.buzzfeed.com/joshmiller/fwdus-breaks-its-first-promise-to-
be-different)

Because Buzzfeed is (apparently) banned, the link was autokilled as soon as I
hit submit.

I really don't mind that HN is curated--that's part of what makes it so good.
But the lack of transparency seems almost like they are saying "Don't worry,
just trust us, we know what's best for you."

~~~
sneak
I didn't know that Gawker was banned from HN. Was a reason given, or can one
be reasonably inferred?

~~~
est
Gawker is also banned on many sub-reddits. Maybe this?

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/16/reddit-
gawk...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/16/reddit-gawker-ban)

[http://www.dailydot.com/news/gawker-reddit-banned-adrian-
che...](http://www.dailydot.com/news/gawker-reddit-banned-adrian-chen-
violentacrez/)

~~~
JoachimSchipper
I'm almost certain that Gawker had already been banned for months if not years
at that point.

~~~
coloneltcb
yea, it's been a while

------
DigitalSea
It was bound to happen and showing targeted ads when people check-in is a no
brainer. The issue Foursquare has is retaining the user base. I was an avid
user for the better part of a year and then it just got tiring, it became a
chore to check-in places and Facebook already had a similar feature. The
badges aspect is cool, but the badges mean nothing and most of my friends
stopped using Foursquare after a couple of months so there was no one to brag
to and another issue is that people would cheat check-ins. I was competing for
a local store that I would visit every morning and caught someone out checking
in to the store when it wasn't even open and no, they didn't work there.

Does Foursquare still have a large user-base left to monetise?

~~~
hkmurakami
It seems to still be popular it the tech early adopter crowd in Japan at
least. I think they can make decent money just from Tokyo.

Also, their reputation for having the best "what's good to eat here" feature
quality in a really strong weapon to have.

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habosa
Is Foursquare really only bringing in $2M a year? Is that revenue or profit?
Either way that's not a lot for a company that I'd consider to be in the "Big
7" of social networks (FB, Twitter, G+, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and
Foursquare). I mean that's certainly a lot of money in absolute terms but FB
is bringing in billions a quarter. Also I've been to Foursquare's office in
NYC and it's very, very nice. I would have a hard time believing a company
barely getting by would invest in a place like that.

Maybe that's a misquoted figure?

~~~
clobber
> only bringing in $2M a year

Surprise, surprise. Startup burning through venture capital while actual
'revenue' is smoke and mirrors. We've seen this movie before.

~~~
bitcartel
Wow, $71.4 million in funding!

Edit: Privco predicts company will fail soon
[http://www.privco.com/privcos-2013-private-company-
predictio...](http://www.privco.com/privcos-2013-private-company-
predictions-6-10)

------
InclinedPlane
Seems a bit late for them to be figuring out how to make money.

