harry roman

Facebook Is Working On A Foursquare-Killer

For his part, Foursquare cofounder Dennis Crowley told us he fully expects Facebook and others to launch “check-in” functionality, making it “commodity by the end of the year.”

Dennis says Foursquare’s survival depends on providing “the most incentive for a user to check-in.” Right now, Foursquare awards frequent users badges and calls the users who check-in at certain venues the most to become their “mayor.”

“I think we’re doing this better than anyone else and I think we’ll continue to do so. We have so much stuff on the whiteboard that we haven’t even touched yet… we’re really just getting started.”

Here’s who Dennis and company are going against:

Yelp

• Advantages: Scale, brand, ardent community, large app install base. More money from investors like Elevation Partners.
• Disadvantages: Not your real friends. It’s a site for writers.  No Foursquare-like gaming element.

Gowalla

• Advantages: Closer to mainstream than Foursquare. Has more money than Foursquare, from sexy investors like Greylock. Not based in New York so it’s closer to “real” America.
• Disadvantages: Not based in New York, which is the perfect city for this kind of software.

Facebook

• Advantages: Huge scale. Has tons of engineering talent. Like with Foursquare, Facebook friends are your real friends — the kind of people you want to join you when you go out.
• Disadvantages: Unlike Foursquare, Facebook can afford to fail.

Potential rivals also include Twitter and CitySearch.