Jackie Danicki

Just over a month ago, I wrote a post on Twitter, Foursquare, and mobile coupons while I was in Hawaii. For a simple guide to Foursquare, check out the Chicago Tribune’s piece published today, which echoes my post in positing that the money-making potential for this app could be huge.

As soon as I left Hawaii and got to a Foursquare-compatible city (San Francisco - for all of eight hours before my flight to another Foursquare-enabled place, New York City), I started using the app in earnest. For the past month, I’ve checked in religiously at dozens of venues in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. I became mayor of ten different venues, lost mayorships to a few of those, collected nine badges (Player Please! was the funniest), and attained Superuser status.

Now, after one month, I face a decision: I either abandon Foursquare altogether or let it run my life.

The competition that the makers have built into the app is addictive. As a tech start-up person and marketer, I look upon this with great admiration and respect. Kudos to Dennis and Naveen for building something that hooks the user so quickly and compels her to integrate it into her daily life. That’s rare.

The flipside of this is that every one of us has to decide what will get our attention in life. I remember when I was living in London years ago, and we finally got the American hit TV show Lost. The buzz about the drama had been unavoidable; I was dying to find out what all the fuss was about, and frankly was hoping to get a little lost in the show myself. It was said to be that gripping. So I sat through the first fifteen minutes, then turned it off. I knew that if I got into Lost, I’d have to keep up with it for at least the next three years. More than five years later, I’m so glad I didn’t get into that show.

I’m having a Lost moment now with Foursquare. Last week, I lost mayorship of Amarin Thai restaurant in Mountain View to Malte. I recognized Malte as the mayor of Mountain View Caltrain, and we exchanged some private Twitter messages about Foursquare. In the course of that conversation, I learned that there is a Caltrain (onboard) venue where one can check in. I thought of the dozens of times I could have checked in there, and hadn’t, and got really freaking annoyed.

Which is when I pretty much decided to throw in the towel on Foursquare. I love the app, I admire what the creators have built, I think the monetization potential is massive, and I really want no part of it. This says more about me than the app; I’m fiercely competitive in games, and if I know the odds are against me from the get-go, I’m not inclined to take part. More than that, the last thing I need is another attention-sucking reason to look at my mobile device. (Note: I speak for myself alone. Your mileage may vary.)

It seems like a good moment to go. For all the hype surrounding Foursquare, its international userbase is just a shade over 100,000 people. Even in this hotbed of adoption for shiny new things, the SF Bay Area, it doesn’t take much to become mayor of most mid-sized and smaller venues. I became mayor of the aforementioned Amarin, located on the busiest street in start-up-soaked Mountain View, after only two check-ins. I was mayor of Menlo Park Caltrain after a mere nine check-ins. The latter is a place where thousands of geeks swing through every day - often twice a day - with their iPhones. It shouldn’t have been that easy for me.

I’m not saying that Foursquare isn’t going to take off. Especially as they add more cities, I think the app’s popularity will rise. It’s a game, and one that’s enjoyable if you don’t take it too seriously. I’m sure they’ll make money, especially if they offer virtual gifts and introduce creative, revenue-generating rules for the game.

I’d encourage anyone in the mobile app space to play with Foursquare for a month and see what ideas it inspires. Fool around, but don’t feel compelled to put a ring on it. You can always dip back in if the spirit moves you (or you’re super wasted), but you’ll probably just be reminded that there’s a reason why exes are exes.

Filed under: Life