Foursquare: How I love simple ideas

It´s has always amazed me that if you stop and think about it for a minute, you will find that here are always opportunities to generate business, and a lot of people can come up with terrific ideas, but there are so few of them that can really make them reality. Just think how many times you have heard “Well… that´s not new” or “I know X and Y companies that do the same thing”, or “I already thought of that”…

Well my response to that people is: “Then why don´t you…..”

Most good business ideas are simple, like this guys at foursquare which is a site where you connect with your friends and basically tell them where you are. For example you want to say that you are in “CORTE INGLES”…. We all know that there are a lot of them throughout Spain and sometimes there are two or three at the same neighborhood, such as Salamanca in Madrid, so you login to foursquare and can specify in which “CORTE INGLES” are you can tell whomever you want to go there, and they can even get a map of specific location.

So, the business idea is simple and appealing to many people

1 People like to be located: A lot of people could argue that they do not wish to be so easily located, and that it is even dangerous, or that it disturbs their privacy rights, etc.. but as my grandpa used to say “don´t like it, don´t use it…“ but you need to understand that there is always market for everything, and not because you do not like something, it means that everybody is going to hate it. (ask Marilyn Manson ;) )

2 People like to be connected: Social Networks are here to stay, whether you like it or not… The number of people connecting through social networks is increasing in an exponential ratio… So if you like to be connected, and you like to be located…. You see why this idea is getting more appealing by the minute…

3 You can always make business out of people’s needs… For example you have to give your profile, and every time you give a recommendation it is being recorded, and your friends accepting or commenting on your recommendations are also being recorded… just imagine the potential of this information in an aggregated manner NOT IN AN INDIVIDUAL MANNER (since I am studying at IE and here quoting and the usage of information is a HUGE DEAL… this last statement in point number three is my complete assumption and I have absolutely no idea if they use this information for business purpouses)

4 It is a great way for companies to reward their customers… Companies want to grow on mobile customers and the whole p2p world (person to person), hence foursquare gives the opportunity to businesses to deliver “special offers” to customers and it is a really really cheap way to get to this segment.

5 It is fun… how can I differentiate my business and at the same time ease my introduction into this really complicated market… just make it fun, really try it… it´s fun… If you are interested go and try it… u have nothing to loose…
I can go on and on and on, and it is not my purpouse to make a thorough analisys of this company but to make a point that simple ideas are always a good idea and technology enables you to make some of them a reality.

Evolve or risk being left behind…