Foursquare teams up with American Express to offer discounts
The location based service (LBS) Startup Foursquare said that they had teamed up with the American CC (Credit Card) giant American Express to offer its users discounts.
It said users who register their American Express cards with Foursquare could win discounts from their merchants, while the merchants could sell more products/services. Foursquare won’t earn any profits from this campaign, but aims to attract more users, and American Express hopes to take advantage of this move to attract more young users as well.
American Express said this new campaign will be introduced during the SXSW carnival (South by Southwest Interactive Festival) which will be held next week in Austin, Texas. American Express said this program will be available to the rest of US later, but they still did not have a detailed plan.
Foursquare is quite popular right now, its user base increased from less than five hundred thousands to more than seven million users in the past 12 months, and still twenty five thousands new users join Foursquare daily. According to its co-founder Dennis Crowley, American users account for 60% of them while the others from the rest of the world. Everyday, there are two millions of check-ins on Foursquare, and in 2010, the number is 381,576,305, which is quite impressive.
Update, Foursquare’s latest app 3.0 version was released at SXSW, users who pay using American Express enjoy special discount from over 60 stores. However it’s worth noting that you could not check-in by pay using your credit card although it may be possible in the future as the project moves on.
While this is a smart move by Foursquare, banks, shops and users all can benefit from it. As for Foursquare itself, it may not earn any revenue from it, but it’s a good attempt. Foursquare may finally find a way to make profits from its various attempts.
