When I first discovered Foursquare about a year and a half ago, it seems like a pretty cool idea. I get to check-in to places that I've been, see who's around, read reviews of certain places, find out if any pretty people around me at the same time and same place (I know... creepy right??) and most of all I get to collect points and may someday become mayor of that place! I mean, at that time it seems like, wow! Especially if you're travelling around the world, you get to show off to your friends where you're going, where you're checking in.
Now after a year and a half (actually seems like longer), this all seems old... and most definitely trivial. Mind you, I've stopped checking for more than 4 months now. I couldn't care less about trying to gain mayorship of a location much less holding on to mayorship. I mean, WHAT'S THE POINT??
I'm sure the creators of Foursquare had a good business model in mind when they created Foursquare. And that is advertising for businesses. Where I'm at, there are only a handful of place that give special discounts or offers to people who check-in to their locations. Other than that, there really is not much point in checking in. So what if you get points for checking in? So what if you're mayor of the location? Maybe its not relevant where I am (Malaysia) and maybe its more relevant in the USA. I've been to a few places in the past 2 years (Australia, Vietnam, Thailand and all around Malaysia) and I have yet to encounter any special treatments from places I have checked-in.
Of course all is not lost. I still use Foursquare for certain things. But definitely not for checking-in. I'm done with that. What I use Foursquare for now is for reading reviews and recommendations. Whenever I'm at place I'm unfamiliar with, I'll search for others' recommendations. Its also useful when I want to find out what is the WiFi password for the location. Some users are kind enough to put in a tip for the WiFi password. We all know what a pain it can be to get the password from the staffs/waiters from some places. Of course there are other uses of Foursquare, for instance when you're trying to let your friends know where you are so that they can easily find you or for you to find them.
Foursquare have renewed the user interface of their mobile app in their latest versions just to keep users interested. Discovering places plays a much more important role now and it does look more beautiful. It looks like something out of Facebook's Timeline feature when you try to discover places. I will probably continue using Foursquare for the sake of discovering places and checking for reviews and information. For "checking-in"... not so eager, not until more "incentives" comes along that is good enough a reason for me to check-in. And I mean REAL incentives. Not some virtual points and virtual mayorship...
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