Foursquare reduced to just one app

Foursquare is discontinuing its original application, now called City Guide, on December 15. The associated website will run for a few weeks longer. All data entered by businesses and users and the interfaces (API) set up to retrieve and modify this data will also be retained. This is because Foursquare earns money by licensing the data it collects on businesses and other establishments and their visitors.

The company also continues to operate the Swarm app, which was spun off from Foursquare ten years ago. Swarm is used to track the leisure activities of social acquaintances. "With Swarm, you can see which of your friends are going out nearby, find out who's available for drinks later, and share what you're up to," the company blog said at the time of its launch in 2014.

A decade of two tracks

At the time, Swarm was an expression of Foursquare's new two-app strategy. The original app was also called Foursquare and has since been renamed City Guide. For the last ten years, this app and its website focused on the location-based marketing of opportunities to spend money, while the check-ins that were helpful for making appointments with acquaintances lived on in Swarm. Now these functions are coming together again, at least in part.

The City Guide is obviously not a goldmine, and operating two systems costs extra, even if they share data in the background. Officially, the return to the one-app strategy is intended to provide an "even better experience" with Swarm. At the beginning of the new year, this will be reflected in new service features that will bring "greater impact and better services for our customers", the company says. Some of the City Guide functions will then live on in Swarm.

Company founder Dennis Crowley is no longer actively involved in management, but is Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors. Online, he is trying to dispel fears of financial difficulties: Foursquare has a turnover of more than 100 million dollars. He expresses his gratitude to the developers, infrastructure managers and customer service staff of the app, which is being phased out, as well as to the super users who are particularly eager to enter data for God's reward. After all, these data donations are essential for Foursquare's revenue.

Speaking of data: Users can download their data, even after City Guide is shut down. The information should be retained in the long term, after all it also feeds Swarm, where it will continue to be available. Anyone who wants to can delete their data, in which case it will of course also disappear from Swarm.

(ds)