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Re:The New Foursquare by schainan on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @03:04PM (#8144228)
I work for Foursquare; here's my answer to #3:

It's not just that tips are shorter than reviews, though that's part of it. The issue with Yelp is that every single user gets the same recommendations if they search at the same place and time. And in a world where everything is becoming more personalized, it's crazy that the predominant app in the local search category does nothing to tailor its results to you. When you sign up for the new Foursquare, it asks you for your tastes so that every time you search, every time you open the app, it will be tailored for the things you like. It's like Amazon recommended products vs the experience you get on non-smart ecommerce platforms. It's smarter at a fundamental level; the things we are doing with our data are really smart and unprecedented in this space. That's why I'm confident we have a differentiated product in this new app, and I hope you try it out and see what I mean.

Furthermore, we still have tons of check-in data - 90% of our checkin users have moved over to Swarm and continue to check in. So I don't think there's much to worry about with regards to our data getting stale and losing quality.

Re:The New Foursquare by GuiA on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @03:19PM (#8144307)
> 90% of our checkin users have moved over to Swarm and continue to check in.

That's an incredibly high number, so I'm guessing it doesn't mean "all users ever", but rather "all users who check in at least once a day"?

Re:The New Foursquare by snoman on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @05:19PM (#8144923)
Consider that the 10% must also include Windows Phone users (as there is no Swarm app in WP).

'checkin users' probably means something like "active daily users on platforms where we have released swarm" and 'moved over to Swarm' means something like "has at least 1 checkin using Swarm". This is what I like to call "counting for marketing professionals".

Re:The New Foursquare by TeMPOraL on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @07:33PM (#8145474)
> Furthermore, we still have tons of check-in data - 90% of our checkin users have moved over to Swarm and continue to check in.

Isn't that because Foursquare auto-updated to Swarm? Or something? I don't even remember how I got that app on my phone, and I opened it maybe twice. Check-ins (or something) appear to be fully automatic, there's no need to even open the app, and the only reason I haven't deleted it yet is because I'm too lazy. I'm dead serious here. I loved Foursquare and used it over Yelp (making my friend Yelp Community Manager unhappy), but now I find it completely worthless.

EDIT:

[0] made me finally remove Swarm. I don't need an app I don't use eat my power while I still haven't bought that powerbank to be able to play Ingress longer.

[0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8143970

Re:The New Foursquare by frostmatthew on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @07:21PM (#8145435)
> 90% of our checkin users have moved over to Swarm and continue to check in

You/Foursquare really should clarify exactly what you mean by this - we keep hearing how "successful" Swarm is but it seems most [former] users (including me) and their friends (including mine) stopped using it when (or shortly after) the switch happened.

Right now Foursquare sounds like Google in the early days of Google+ where they were touting how much people were posting but everybody was saying they never saw any activity in their stream.

Re:The New Foursquare by TeMPOraL on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @07:53PM (#8145550)
There is some sort of automated checking in going on; I haven't checked in even once in Swarm, and I've been asked by my friends if I'm a fan of this change because apparently, I've been checking in all over the city.
Re:The New Foursquare by malbiniak on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @08:43PM (#8145730)
Your location/neighborhood is being updated automatically in the background, but you are not automatically checked into venues.
Re:The New Foursquare by AznHisoka on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @08:37PM (#8145708)
Considering how popular it is to inflate ego metrics, safe to assume 90% means 90% of people who use the app everyday, or something incredibly obtuse.

Not even Candy Crush can say 90% of users download a new game, etc. Let alone Foursquare. yawns

Re:The New Foursquare by tibu on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @06:28PM (#8145227)
Are you sure about the 90%? I've been a hardcore user and I don't use it since Swarm. And most of my friends don't use it anymore. People will slowly get out of it, tips will be ages old and somethings else will take over the place. I'm just sad that I put so much energy to get new places onto the map and write tips and you just make them fade away...
Re:The New Foursquare by nacs on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @07:56PM (#8145556)
The 90% is likely users downloading it since they were basically forced to with the split, started it up once and quit using it.

The 2 star reviews on the Appstore show retention is likely horrible with the new app.

Re:The New Foursquare by nacs on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @07:54PM (#8145554)
> Furthermore, we still have tons of check-in data - 90% of our checkin users have moved over to Swarm

The 90% of users who were basically forced to switch to it have given your app an overwhelmingly negative 2 star rating.

They may have downloaded it since they don't have much of a choice but its clear the vast majority of your users hate it.

Re:The New Foursquare by ulfw on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @03:32PM (#8144374)
> 90% of our checkin users have moved over to Swarm Really? I find that extremely hard to believe that 90% of users would download a second app. That would be a super huge success if true. Or how do you define 'checkin user'? Someone who checks in every day? At least once a week? etc
Re:The New Foursquare by hedgehog on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @03:34PM (#8144382)
That's a good number, how do you define a "checkin user"?
Re:The New Foursquare by gdilla on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @03:40PM (#8144415)
but I HATE that once in swarm, you bounce me back to Foursquare to see what's good here, after not allowing me to check in in Foursquare. It's so maddening.
Re:The New Foursquare by schainan on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @04:07PM (#8144558)
The thing is, in practice bouncing directly to that view in another app is about the same as bouncing to a separate view in the same app. Try it with the new Foursquare + Swarm. I was just as skeptical at first, but it really does work pretty well. Honestly here's the old flow:

1. Hit check in 2. Pick venue 3. Type text, pick people you're with, etc 4. Hit confirm 5. Tap through insights 6. Tap to venue page

Now here's the new flow:

1. Hit check in from Foursquare's Here tab 2. Venue's selected, just tap your text, pick friends/sticker 3. Hit Check in 4. Swipe through insights, click "View in Foursquare"

It's honestly fewer steps when you think about it, thanks to the fact that the checkin flow is much faster + we know where you are with better confidence.

Re:The New Foursquare by gdilla on Thursday August 07, 2014 @10:01AM (#8147728)
ok... but why do always get bounced to Swarm to checkin if i start in FS?