Foursquare vs. Gowalla - Location-based Warfare
Interesting post on Mashable - it appears Foursquare is pulling ahead of Gowalla in the check-in war:
Foursquare vs. Gowalla: Who’s Winning the Geolocation War? [INFOGRAPHIC]
Being first to market or having the best service doesn’t always guarantee a win (see Twitter), as the masses will ultimately decide. With that in mind, it’s hard to see (IMO) how Foursquare can compete long term w/ Gowalla unless they tighten their product up a great deal. A lot of their synergy is coming from brand partnerships w/ many focused on check-in value. Foursquare allows check-Ins from pretty much anywhere, which is problematic on a variety of fronts - and while they recently implemented functions to reduce this, cheating still runs rampant (especially via their API). Ultimately, each LBS may have a role, but w/ Twitter, Facebook and others jumping in the fray, it’s hard to see either succeeding as a standalone product. My guess is that Foursquare will eventually be purchased by Facebook (Yahoo deal is dead in the water) and Gowalla by someone else (or a consolidation of services followed by purchase, Yahoo or other).
Location is red hot, and in complete land-grab mode. New services launch every week, some good, some bad. And while Foursquare has the most cachet of the group, there’s a dark horse flying under the radar that I think can make a significant impact. It’s Whrrl, and in my opinion, it’s the best and most complete LBS currently available.
