Next year's Twitter? It's Foursquare

As 2009 draws to a close, with Twitter undoubtedly this year's media darling and Facebook continuing on its path to global domination, you may wonder which social-media service will become tech's poster boy in 2010.




Among the Web's early adopter set, the answer is nearly unanimous: Foursquare.



While the technology landscape is ever-changing, I'd argue that Foursquare already has aligned itself to become next year's mainstream hit.



The Twitter connection



Birthed by the team that brought us the mobile social network Dodgeball (acquired by Google in 2005 and later shuttered), the location-based mobile startup serves a simple purpose: It lets an individual share his or her location with a group of friends.



Foursquare ventures beyond utility, however: It's a virtual game in which participants earn badges for checking in at various locations; those that check in most become a venue's "mayor." By all accounts, this mechanism is as addictive as Twitter, Facebook or checking your e-mail on a BlackBerry.



Originally launched as an iPhone application and seeded by the young early-adopter set in cities such as New York and San Francisco, the site's founders were able to leap from a ready-made springboard: Twitter.



With users' "check-ins" being posted to the messaging service, Foursquare was able to gain a foothold in much the same way YouTube built its lead from videos embedded in MySpace pages.



The parallels with Twitter are numerous. As technology early adopter and popular blogger Robert Scoble wrote in September: "Go back three years ago. Twitter was being used by the same crowd that is playing with Foursquare today."



The similarities don't stop there: Twitter first took hold at Austin's South By Southwest festival in 2007; Foursquare made its debut at SXSW 2009. Members of both founding teams have previously built successful social startups; both those startups were sold to Google.



The two companies share investors, too: Union Square Ventures is a backer, while Twitter inventor Jack Dorsey made an angel investment in Foursquare. Other notable investors include the founders of Digg and Delicious, and famed angel investor Ron Conway. Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson observed that Foursquare's first round financing was "among the most competitive early round financings I've seen in a long time."



http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/19/cashmore.foursquare/index.html