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.
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".
> 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.
> 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.
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.
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...
> 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
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.
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.
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.