Coupons Everywhere

http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/15/technology/foursquare_revenue/index.htm

Companies like Foursquare have seen Groupon’s success and are trying to mirror it and capitalize on the Groupon strategy. This CNN article discusses what companies like Foursquare are planning to do as they follow the Groupon model. They have launched a phone ap that lets companies send coupons to your phone depending on your location. The location-specific deal feature is designed to “provide us with a better experience of the real world.” For this ap to be successful, Foursquare needs to attract a large audience. To gather people to their service, they plan to offer rewards once someone passes a certain number of check ins. This will encourage people to use their service and also provide them with extra information to help them determine where are good check in places to target.

I appreciate the convenienve of this service. It would be nice to be standing in line at Chipoltle or the grocery store and have a coupon delivered right then to be there. But it is also a little bit creepy. I don’t know that I like the idea of phones and salespeople being able to track my every move. Maybe it’s being too private of a person, but I don’t see how it is Foursquare’s business to know what I buy, when I buy it, and where I buy it. But since the technology is there to check in places with phones and mark locations, then it makes sense to capitalize on it, and if that’s the case then I don’t mind saving some money while I shop.