
Why do location based services still suck for businesses? - jasonlbaptiste
http://brianbreslin.com/why-do-location-based-services-still-suck-for-businesses/
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mechanical_fish
Because absolutely nobody wants to receive location-based spam? And at some
level companies with location-based services understand this, and are
therefore reluctant (consciously or unconsciously) to build a one-click
location-based-spam generator?

The whole notion of location-based push messaging is inane. It reeks of
something invented by a person who has never lived in a city, or thought hard
about what a city means. In a city you are constantly surrounded by thousands
of things and people in which, frankly, you are not interested. You are
interested in your own little gang. A wise person once said that your city
consists of a tribe of a few dozen people, living in the same space as a few
hundred thousand other tribes.

If it weren't for my ability to selectively ignore 99.9% of what is happening
within three blocks of here, I'd be insane.

On the long, prioritized list of factors that are likely to be predictive of
what I want to see blinking on my phone at any given moment, I suspect that my
current location is very, very far down.

~~~
callmeed
_"Because absolutely nobody wants to receive location-based spam?"_

I'm not sure. Groupon sends people a "deal" for their city _every day_.
Personally, I'd consider it "opt-in spam" and obviously people are eating it
up.

I agree that an endless stream of text messages or background notifications
with $1 off coupons would be stupid. But a single location-based coupon at the
bottom of a Twitter client or a one-deal-a-day text message based on your
location and preferences might work.

 _"And at some level companies with location-based services understand this,
and are therefore reluctant (consciously or unconsciously) to build a one-
click location-based-spam generator?"_

I'm inclined to think it's more about the local business owners. Go to a
chamber of commerce meeting or grab 20 random restaurant owners ... what will
you find? 40 and 50-somethings who barely understand email and the web, let
alone smartphones and location-based social networks.

~~~
anamax
> Go to a chamber of commerce meeting or grab 20 random restaurant owners ...
> what will you find? 40 and 50-somethings who barely understand email and the
> web, let alone smartphones and location-based social networks.

Please tell us more about your research in this area.

They do know how to attract paying customers.

They are deluged with new ways to attract customers, the vast majority of
which don't work and most of the rest aren't worth what they cost. And the
worst of them are more valuable than monday morning quarterbacks.

You think that you can do better? Great! Show us.

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asmithmd1
Brands have cash to spend and want to spend it with FourSquare but can't get
FourSquare to call them back.

[http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i637...](http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i637c45eb15b9f7a32f85067b06ee761d)

Just about everything a brand wants to do can be accomplished through the API.
Traditional ad agencies can create websites, micro-sites, forums, etc; but
don't know what to do with a raw API -- sounds like a little bit of an
opportunity...

~~~
brianbreslin
Things like creating special badges aren't available via API, which I could
see becoming problematic (also aesthetically a mess).

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jsm386
Seeing foursquare specifically, but all of the LBS companies, crawl toward
offering something of value to both businesses and consumers was the
inspiration for GroupTabs, which we're launching in a couple of weeks.

We looked at the popularity of group deals (ie Groupon and its hundred or so
clones) and decided to wed checking in with group buying. So, if X number of
people check in, everybody gets a group deal that they can redeem right that
moment. I was planning on waiting until we launched to do a Show HN and ask
for feedback, but after reading this post, I couldn't resist asking for
feedback. I'd really love to hear it - you can find more info about what we're
about to do @ <http://press.grouptabs.com>

Again, not trying to plug us, and was planning on waiting until we are live,
but this discussion is just too relevant.

~~~
asmithmd1
Sounds like you have a tough, double-ended sale. People will not use your app
until there are some offers in their area and businesses will not make offers
until...why would a business make an offer to people who are already IN their
store?

I think you could try this out with FourSquare's API. Monitor the number of
people checked in at a venue and if it crosses your threshold add a tip to
your venue with the offer. Bonus offer for people who friend the venue's bot.

~~~
jsm386
We've considered both of those issues.

 _People will not use your app until there are some offers in their area and
businesses will not make offers until._

We're working on building a userbase before launch in numerous ways.
Traditional press, word of mouth, some other things. As for businesses making
offers, we have a strong sales team with existing relationships with our
target businesses.

 _why would a business make an offer to people who are already IN their
store?_

We are not targeting people who are already in the bar/restaurant. The idea is
to drive people there who wouldn't go otherwise. We will check you in using
foursquare api if you have a foursquare account, but you must check in with
us/be registered with us. If you're say a foursquare user at the bar who
checked in and happened to be there, no dice for you...because as you said,
why would a business give an offer to people already there.

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commandar
SCVNGR seems to at least partially satisfy what he's wanting. From an end user
perspective, I find SCVNGR a lot more interesting than Foursquare, too, but it
doesn't have nearly the userbase.

~~~
yesimahuman
FWIW I don't see much of a user base for Foursquare either where I live in the
Midwest. Especially not when compared with Check-ins on the West Coast.

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sushrutbidwai
I think foursquare definitely will launch a location aware CRM tool soon
enough. I will be surprised if they dont.

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minalecs
i always thought it was because both these companies are focused on traction
and growing user base first. I think theres more money, in controlling the eco
system, than allowing all kinds of junk to be put it into it.

