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Company

Foursquare

Filtered to Product Launches ×
53 articles decelerating

Foursquare cut 105 jobs, about 25% of its workforce, in 2024 as it narrowed its consumer-app focus to Swarm.

Who they are

Foursquare appears in coverage as a location-technology company spanning a consumer check-in product, Swarm, and location-data services used by other apps and platforms. Co-founder Dennis Crowley is central to its earlier identity, while the company’s stories also trace executive succession from David Shim to board member Gary Little.

The recent arc

The latest company-specific coverage is defined by contraction and consolidation. In May 2024, Foursquare laid off 105 employees, reported as roughly a quarter of its workforce, to streamline operations; in October it said it would sunset City Guide on December 15 and concentrate on Swarm, reversing the 2014 two-app split. Recent references to Crowley instead concern his separate Hopscotch Labs venture, suggesting that the newest attention around the founder is no longer necessarily attention around Foursquare itself.

The tension

Coverage repeatedly pits Foursquare’s consumer heritage against the greater strategic weight and scrutiny of location data. Its Pilgrim SDK was built to license location capabilities to app developers, and partnerships put Foursquare data into Twitter’s location-tagged feeds, Reddit location tags, and Snapchat context cards alongside OpenTable and Lyft. But the North Dakota Care19 reporting, which said location data was sent to Foursquare despite stated privacy promises, shows why data distribution can create reputational risk even when the company is not the app’s operator.

Why it matters

If the Swarm-focused reset holds, Foursquare’s significance will rest on whether a narrower consumer product can coexist with, and support, a location-data business embedded in third-party experiences. The earlier Factual all-stock merger, with the companies reporting more than $150 million in combined 2019 revenue, points to the scale sought through data consolidation; the unanswered question is whether streamlining and product retrenchment strengthen that position or reduce its consumer-facing differentiation.

Foursquare has appeared in 53 articles since 2014-12. Coverage peaked in 2020Q2 with 3 articles. Frequently mentioned alongside Twitter, TechCrunch, Dennis Crowley, Snapchat.

Articles
53
mentions
Velocity
-50.0%
growth rate
Acceleration
-1.500
velocity change
Sources
20
publications

Coverage Timeline

2025-11-06
Engadget 7 related

Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley's new startup Hopscotch Labs debuts BeeBot, which combines AI, audio, and location-based social features, on the App Store

BeeBot is an “app for AirPods” that combines AI, audio and location-based social features.  —  Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley …

2019-04-03
TechCrunch 6 related

Snapchat is testing Status, a Bitmoji on the Snap Map depicting what a user is doing, and Passport, a private compilation of Statuses, in Australia

Today's teens missed the Foursquare era, so Snapchat is giving them another shot with a new feature to aid in-person meetups.

2019-03-10
Foursquare Intersections 6 related

Foursquare's Hypertrending app uses Pilgrim, its SDK used by thousands of apps on millions of phones, to show where people congregate in Austin, in real time

Dennis Crowley / Foursquare Intersections :

2019-03-09
Foursquare Intersections 3 related

Foursquare's Hypertrending app uses Pilgrim, its SDK used by thousands of apps on millions of phones, to show where people congregate in Austin, in real time

Where 10 Years of Foursquare Has Led Us  —  It's been 10 years since we launched Foursquare at SXSW in 2009.

2018-05-24
The Verge 6 related

Tinder says it is testing Tinder Places, which will let users find potential matches based on places they travel to, powered by Foursquare, in Australia, Chile

Ashley Carman / The Verge :

2017-10-10
Wired 9 related

Snapchat debuts context cards to let you hail rides, book tables, and more by swiping up on some Snaps; partners include Foursquare, OpenTable, and Lyft

I don't know I've reached Snap's global headquarters until I am standing in front of them, leaning on the handle of my rolling suitcase and puzzling over a map app.

2017-08-08
The Verge 2 related

Foursquare revamps its Swarm app to be less of a game and more of a travel journal

The check-in app is moving away from games and leaderboards  —  Swarm, the check-in app from social mainstay Foursquare, is pivoting once again.  Foursquare is calling Swarm's latest incarnation the …

2017-05-31
The Verge 10 related

Reddit now lets users tag their posts with location, powered by Foursquare data, coming first to mobile

Reddit has been quietly transforming into a more mature social network, and today it's adding another small but critical piece: the ability to add location tags to posts.

2017-03-02
Mashable 9 related

Foursquare debuts Pilgrim SDK to license its location data to mobile app devs and improve notifications; pricing will be tiered based on app's number of users

Kerry Flynn / Mashable :

2016-12-24
TechCrunch 4 related

Facebook removes precise location sharing in Nearby Friends, starts testing new “Wave” feature for sending waving emoji to nearby friends

Nearby Friends didn't turn into the Foursquare-killer it could have been, but Facebook is still trying to help people meet up in person... with a few changes.

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Quarterly Coverage

Top Sources

Narrative

TEXXR tracks 51 tech news articles mentioning Foursquare, dating back to December 2014. The biggest stories include Foursquare's COO Jeff Glueck replaces Dennis Crowley as CEO as firm announces USV-led... and Report: the official COVID-19 contact tracing app for North Dakota is sharing location.... Frequently covered alongside Twitter, TechCrunch, Dennis Crowley, Jeff Glueck, and Snapchat.

Key Moments

2025Q4consumer +50pts

Relationships

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