Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley hints that he might be open to an acquisition, but not an IPO, over the next year as he continues to build out the firm’s location offering.”The only thing we want to do is build a product,” he says. “If we do it independently that’s great, if we do it as part of a company that’s another story.”
Crowley touts the company’s newly-launched Radar feature, comparing it to the Apple’s new voice-operated personal assistant Siri. Radar automatically pushes out relevant information to users found through Foursquare’s Explore recommendation tool. The system can tell users when friends are nearby or when they are near a place on their to-do list without having to open the application. “What we have been doing with Radar is finding a way for people to use the app really without having to actually use it,” says Crowley.
Speaking to Tech Crunch, Crowley also says his firm’s partnerships with daily deal providers, such as Groupon and LivingSocial, provide a new spin on the market. “The daily deal companies are version 1.0 of great things you can build with the Internet that help local merchants drive foot traffic into the door. What we are doing with Foursquare is version 2,” he maintains. Foursquare is focusing more on loyalty and rewarding customers for returning. The team is working out partnering with credit card companies for check-in specials and looking into other ways to get involved in the payment process. Crowley did not rule out one day implementing paid recommendations in Foursquare.
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