Facebook Places vs. Foursquare & Gowalla

Posted 25th August 2010 by Daniel

Having discussed location based social media just last month in our article: Foursquare vs. Gowalla, we find ourselves bringing up the issue again with a new competitor in the midst of it all.

Making their way to the geolocation platform are Social Media heavyweights, Facebook with their latest feature: Facebook Places. Facebook have their heavy following of 500million users to rely on and will be hoping to make use of what is being seen as their answer to Foursquare. It seems like a cheap shot in many ways as Foursquare had taken the idea and made it their own in recent times, seemingly pulling away from Gowalla to become the main technology of its kind available.

Facebook will argue though that they have given their users the ability to tell friends where they are, and this is just another step up from that. The worry for Foursquare and Gowalla will be the potential loss of users to Facebook. Foursquare and Gowalla don’t have anywhere near the amount of users Facebook can boast and it would be safe to say that many of those who have accounts with either of the two will more than likely have an account with Facebook as well (who doesn’t?).

Many have asked of Facebook, why now? Why not months ago when the location based social media fad was taking off? They have in a sense allowed Foursquare and Gowalla to make some headway and they have both made a name for themselves, gathering somewhat of a cult following in some huge cities. By getting involved now rather than earlier, Facebook may in fact have brought attention to the likes of Foursquare with articles like this popping up everywhere, whereas they could have quelled any progress of their potential rivals before they even got off the ground.

What remains to be seen is whether Foursquare and Gowalla users will remain loyal having got used to the service provided by both. It will also be interesting to see how Gowalla copes now that it has two bigger competitors to deal with. But most of all it will be interesting to see if the two can continue to grow at the rate they have in recent times and find new users willing to give them a chance instead of siding with Facebook. I have found in the past, a lack of interest to use the services due to how few people I knew using either of the services, and I feel that this is something that will work considerably in Facebook’s favour.

Considering the level of detail and various different elements Foursquare and Gowalla have added to their service, Facebook may come across as a poor version of the two, especially to those who have been using either of the other services. Only time will tell in terms of how much of a difference Places will make to Facebook.

We’d love to hear from you on the topic. Do you think Places will improve Facebook and more importantly, do you think you will use it?

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