What real value can a checkin service potentially provide? (Serious question) I think there are a few things: deals from local businesses, meeting new people, interaction coordination.
Deals are booming now. Groupon and LS are huge and do manage to provide me with value. I think Groupon's upcoming mobile offering is brilliant. The likes of foursquare can use this model successfully as well.
Meeting new people is always a tough one, but it is what people want. Give someine a way to make new friends through your service in real life in a safe way and you'll strike gold.
Interaction coordination is probably the most interesting thing I can think of. Imagine communities organizing events by using foursquare. You get invites. You check in. You pay for the event from your phone. You monitor long distance races by the participants' checkins. You participate in live events virtually by having your name flash on a giant screen. At a town fair you are randomly assigned a person and if you find them within a time limit and check in together you get a prize. A giant game of assasin based on checkins.
The checkin itself is just a tool. Playing with a hammer is fun at first but unless you have something to nail it will get boring.
Couldn't agree with your last sentence more. The same thing is true on the builder side of the table. Now that we've built a pretty decent hammer it's time to decide what else we can create with this nifty tool.
Deals are booming now. Groupon and LS are huge and do manage to provide me with value. I think Groupon's upcoming mobile offering is brilliant. The likes of foursquare can use this model successfully as well.
Meeting new people is always a tough one, but it is what people want. Give someine a way to make new friends through your service in real life in a safe way and you'll strike gold.
Interaction coordination is probably the most interesting thing I can think of. Imagine communities organizing events by using foursquare. You get invites. You check in. You pay for the event from your phone. You monitor long distance races by the participants' checkins. You participate in live events virtually by having your name flash on a giant screen. At a town fair you are randomly assigned a person and if you find them within a time limit and check in together you get a prize. A giant game of assasin based on checkins.
The checkin itself is just a tool. Playing with a hammer is fun at first but unless you have something to nail it will get boring.