432 days

Helen A.S. Popkin

SXSW: Foursquare CEO gives updates, hugs

Pete Cashmore’s got a nerve!

Moderating an interview with Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, Cashmore teased Crowley about his 2010 Gap ad, holding it up to the audience and offering it as a prize, and even going so far as to ask if Crowley’s next venture was with J. Crew.

Here’s the thing — and I may be the only reporter-type here at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin with the guts to say it — Cashmore, founder of social media news site Mashable, looks like he fell off the Calvin Klein runway and landed in a bucket of handsome.

Seriously, y’all.

That said, a woman in the audience got a friend to ask Crowley to give her a hug, and when she got it, another women confessed her jealousy over the microphone. That's social media stardom for ya.

Over SXSW weekend, Foursquare hit 2.6 million check-ins,  the most ever. But the fact that Crowley and Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai appeared in a Gap ad shows just how far the little location network that could has come since it made its SXSW debut in 2009. Not just in terms of architectural evolution and traffic mind you, though both have been huge, especially in the last week. Getting a Gap ad means the mainstream knows how you are.

This is the kind of recognition any brand would kill for, especially a brand that’s seen so much copy-cat competition pop up in the past two years — Facebook, Google, Gowalla, Groupon and many more are also in the location game.

Crowley played the good-natured embarrassed guy about the Gap ad, and even brought a golden version of the silver crown he wore on the cover of "Wired." magazine. Those Mashable kids had fun with it too, surveying SXSW attendees about their Foursquare knowledge so Cashmore could quiz Crowley "Family Feud" style.

Crowley seemed pleased that two of the top three survey responses put him in his late 20s and early 30s, but disappointed that neither the survey respondents knew Foursquare's business model. Perhaps that's a fail for the techie audience at SXSW. But for the mainstream user who's come to recognize Crowley in a Gap ad, who even cares?

Foursquare continues to move beyond the technorati and into mainstream America because we don't need to know its business model. If it works in our lives, it works so we don't even notice. The onslaught of Foursquare announcements made during SXSW could help that along. Crowley discussed  the latest: Foursquare's expanded API and "Venue Project." Thanks to users inputting so much location information, Foursquare now houses a huge database of locations and it's willing to share with third-party developers.

Here's how the Foursquare blog  breaks it down:

Today, through the foursquare [sic] Venue Project, we’re breaking out the Venues API, making it available at high rate limits (so even the most popular apps can use it without worrying about hitting a limit), with simple “userless” authentication, new endpoints, and with clear guidelines for use.

This really ups the game for the location competition, though as Crowley noted, Gowalla users can access Foursquare, and he'd like to see Google and Twitter join the party.

Other recent updates:

• Foursquare 3.0 for iPhone and Android launched shortly before SXSW. The updated version a recommendations engine that offers suggestions based on your previous check-ins. New special offer features are also planned for merchants.
• A partnership with the New York Times, New York Magazine, Thrillist and MenuPages expands information on locations for users.
• Foursquare and American Express are testing out a loyalty program here in Austin through March 15. Foursquare users are reward with $5 when they charge $5 or more on their American Express card at participating merchants, after loading the special offer on their Foursquare account.

In a final SXSW announcement made at the end of the Cashmore/Crowley interview, the Foursquare CEO invited everyone to meet the crew and say hi — 40 of the mere 50 Foursquare employees attended. It wasn't clear if they, like Crowley, were open to free hugs.

More from SXSW:

• Felicia Day talks games, 'The Guild' and social media booty calls
• 4chan founder: Zuckerberg wrong on privacy
• Famous Internet cats commemorated in cheddar
• Can the Internet and pop culture be friends?
• 100K Facebook 'Likes' for dogs sends $100K to Japan
• Vote on your 'Social Network Users' Bill of Rights'
• Sexual survival for geeks

 Helen A.S. Popkin went to only one SXSW party where she made some friends, but then they went home ... they said. As you (and Helen's boss) can clearly ascertain via Facebook and Twitter, she is hard at work at SXSW, chugging coffee and writing blog posts.