The Swarm and The Hype Cycle

When I first discovered Foursquare Swarm I couldn’t help but think of my childhood. Perhaps you are familiar with the four-person game called foursquare; or you have experienced the terror of a swarm of bees in reality or a TV show. In any case, when I stumbled upon the two words together – “foursquare” and “swarm” I was made of questions. What is Foursquare Swarm? Why is it called Foursquare Swarm? When was this created, and… is foursquare a sport? After doing some intense digging, I discovered that Foursquare Swarm is more than what meets the eye…and foursquare is a sport.

Check out this short, entertaining video about the who, what, when, where and why about Foursquare Swarm.

Foursquare Swarm is new, up-and-coming social media outlet that is heating up in the App Store and Android Market. Foursquare Swarm pushes the limitations of communication by allowing users to keep a record of all the places they go like never before.

Let’s say you finally get the chance to try the new burger joint everyone is talking about, or you are at the grand opening of a new vegan spot downtown. You can log all the places you visit so you never forget the location. The app comes with mapping and tracking capabilities so that users are motivated to explore me, and share their experiences with friends. Foursquare Swarm is also an exciting, insightful way to observe how far the user has traveled, and offers achievements to unlock along the way. Users can also easily observe who is nearby with a glance, and like or comment on their check-ins.

In regards to the Gardner’s Hype cycle — a graph developed and used by American research and information tech firms or represent the adoption, maturation, and social application of specific technologies — Foursquare Swarm falls on the increasing curve of the innovation trigger.

The Hype Cycle is relevant because it help businesses solve real-world problem and exploit new opportunity. The cycle gives business a good idea about how technology or applications will evolve over time and provides business with a source of insight to manage development in terms of specific business goals.

Foursquare Swarm falls on up-and-up of innovation trigger because of its new introduction to the market. The app is on the up-and-up because is now avail Le for users to download on the market. The app is usable and the commercial viability is proven.

As Foursquare Swarm approaches the peace of inflated expectations, I have researched and discovered success stories and failures, and the company is open to taking action based off of the feedback it receives from users.

A very reliable source that I used to determine Foursquare Swarms fit on the Hype Cycle includes the reviews and comments made on the app in the App Store and any blogs or posts from users. Since Foursquare Swarm is a new app to the market, I haven’t observed waning interest or actions taken to drastically improve the app. The app has also not gone mainstream yet but the use of the app is steadily increasing.

This analysis is of the fit of Foursquare Swarm on the Hype Cycle helps the brand seepage “hype” from real motivations of a commercial prom is, reduce the risk of investment decisions, and compare interpretation of a business’s values with the objectivity of experience information technology analysts.

Speaking of motivations, who is Foursquare Swarm motivated to target most anyway? Click here to discover the ideal candidate for a Foursquare Swarm user.

A Day In The Life of the Swarm (IA, UI, & UX)

It’s clear that Foursquare Swarm carefully calculated the design of the User Interface and Information Architecture to fit its target audience.

The brands colors are a bright shades of orange and yellow, with hints of white. The application is flexible in terms of registration — allowing users to join through their Facebook account, or by entering an email and password. The design is minimal, clean and sharp — and once a user creates a free account, the app prompts the user with questions regarding gender and birthday. Users also have the option to submit a phone number, although it is not required.

After a profile is created the app walks the user though the features of the app, and connects to the phone’s contacts and Facebook (if applicable) so the user can begin adding friends.

Features of the app shown after registration.

The user homepage of the map displays a street map of the users current location at the top with the number of places visited, saved, and the number of categories. Just below the map there is a timeline that shoes when the user visited each location.

The user homepage is indicated by the orange silhouette of a person on the bottom left.

From the homepage there are five funtions the user can explore.

1. The most signifcant function falls at the bottom of the page in between two icons. This functunion is shown as “drop pin” similar to one you may have seen on Apple Maps or Google Maps. A user can check in to a location by clicking this pin. Once the pin is clicked the app will verify the location by prompting the user to select which nearby attraction they are present at. A user can also search for a specific business using the magnifying glass in the upper-right hand corner. After verifying the location, the user can add a comment about their visit, add a picture, share the visit on Facebook or Twitter, or share the visit with specific friends.

After a check-in the user receives a achievement in the form of stickers that is assigned to a specific catergory within the app. Categories range from Food & Drink, to Retail, to Entertainment and so on. For the first check-in a user makes, they receive 100 coins and the user can receive additional coins for visiting new places and collecting new stickers. The coins cannot be used to make any exchanges, however, the app uses these incentives to encourage exploration.

2. On the right side of the check-in function is an icon with 3 silhouettes of people. From here, users can add friends from contacts or Twitter.

3. From the user homepage, the function in the upper-right hand corner is representative as a shelf. By clicking on the shelf icon, the user is forwarded to the notication center where they can manage notifications and send personal messages.

4. Search In the center at the very top of the user homepage, the user can search for locations among different catoriges, explore new places, or review place visited in the past.

5. Finally, from the user homepage, the function in the upper-left hand corner shows the first letter of the users name, or a picture of the user. If a user registers for Foursquare Swarm through Facebook, the app automatically uses the users Facebook profile picture here. When a user clicks this function, the homepage transitions to a colorful page with organization information about the whereabouts of the user. At the top of this page is a map of the continent the user is currently in with a small orange dot on the map that represents the users exact location. From here the user has access to a wide range of capabilities. The user can:

Observe how many places have been visited, and how many coins have been earned
Observe which places have been visited
Observe saved places, frequently visited places, and mayorships
View any photos taken, and stickers earned
Track the past locaitons of friends
Add friends
Make changes to in-app settings including: sound effects, privacy, and third-party apps

From the settings page, a user can even rate the app in the App Store, search for support or read frently asked questions and contact customer support for any questions or concerns.

The Target Audience of the Swarm

The target audience for Foursquare Swarm is very similar to that of its compeitiors. The careful analysis of a random sample of people reveals that Foursquare Swarm targets an audience between the ages of 16 and 25. Ideally, the primary user is an employed, traveler or explorer that is interested in sharing new experiences. The target customer is skilled when it comes to technology, and indulges in a rich, developed social life.

Since the audience of Foursquare Swarm is very similar to its compeitiors, a compeitiors target market analysis is helpful when it comes to really understand the type of person that Foursquare intends to reach.

The competitors target audience research on Snapchat concludes that concludes that 60% of U.S smartphone users are between 13 and 34, and 60% of Americas between ages 13 and 38 are Snapchat users. 85% of monthly U.S. Snapchatters are between 13 and 34. 7 of 10 Snapchat users are millennials and the number of users above 25 years of age are growing two times as fast as users under 25.

As far as Facebook goes, 8% more woman use Facebook than men, and more than half of Facebook users are between 18 and 24. Although Facebook’s audience gives good insight about what type of people are on the platform, I only wanted to consider the amount of users that take advantage of the check-in feature on Facebook, as that feature is most closely related to Foursquare Swarm’s purpose.

Another indicator of Foursquare Swarm’s target market is the reviews left in the App Store about the application.

Raqui_L says…

“If you’re an intentional community builder, you’ll love this. If you travel often, download this & immediately see what your friends are doing when you arrive.”
Foursquare Swarm User
App Store Review

…as she herself is an intentional community builder that travels often.

The Swarm’s Competitors

Accessing the Hive

Although Foursquare Swarm provides premium-level service for no cost to the user, the app is not alone in the industry. This application falls on a spectrum of location-centered messaging platforms that offer familiar services through various mediums of communication. On the high end of the spectrum, Foursquare Swarm faces competitors such as Facebook and Snapchat – social media giants in the industry. These competitors are used widely by audiences that Foursquare Swarm targets.

Left: Foursquare Swarm — Right-Top: Facebook, Right-Bottom: Snapchat

Facebook, arguablyably the largest social media giant in the industry, offers a very similar feature for its users. If you are unfamiliar with this feature, Facebooks allows users to check-in to their favorite locations and share their experiences with friends. Users can even leave reviews on businesses, and recommend businesses to other users. As of the second quarter of 2019, Facebook has 2.1 billion monetary active users. Facebook is also offered in English and 30 other languages, which gives a good idea about the types of audience that Facebook strives to reach.

Snapchat, another considerably popular social media application, allows users to share their location will all of their online friends or a select few. While users cannot specifically comment and like the places others have visited, they can observe their friends’ locations in real time as long as an internet connection is established. As of the second quarter of 2019, Snapchat has 203 million active daily usersd. Snapchat is offered in English and 29 other languages.

On the low end of the spectrum, Foursquare Swarm faces competors such as Spyzie and Glympse. These applications are either still new to the market or tailored for a more specific audience, however, they offer very familiar services to that of Foursquare Swarm.

Spyzie is an app that allows users to share their location and track the whereabouts of others. Other users can see the places that a specific person has visited and access vital information related to a device’s call logs, contacts, messages, photos, keylogger, and more. The application also has a web-based interface that can be accessed remotely. I was unable to find information regarding the number of languages Spyzie is offered in, however, the service is offered in 234+ countries.

Glympse is another social media application that offers real time location tracking. Glympse also supports multiple platforms and can be used to track the travel of loved ones or employees. The application can be used for business or personal use and comes with built-in navigation options. Glypmse is offered in English and 14 other languages.

Left: Foursquare Swarm — Right-Top: Glympse, Right-Bottom: Spyzie

My research was unable to discover reliable sources that give accurate numbers about how many users are on Spyzie, or Glympse, however, Foursquare Swarm is in good shape in regards to how it sets itself apart from its compeition.

First and foremost, Foursquare Swarm is free of charge for its users, and is available on Android devices and Apple devices, unlike Spyzie. In addition, the free version of Foursquare Swarm is free of paid advertising unlike Facebook and Snapchat. Foursquare Swarm is also unique besucase it offers achievemtents as quantifiable coins and stickers for different places that users visit. Once a user checks in, they can add a pin to the location on the map, and add a photo or comment to the pin to make the memories merrier. Users can also discover and explore different restaurants and attractions, and earn stickers for traveling somewhere new. The more a user checks in, the more insightful information they’ll gain about their habits and journeys. Foursquare currently has about 50 million monthly active users and the application is offered in English and 12 other languages.

In a public online review of the 4.2 star-rated app, Jenifer K says…

The map function is awesome. I can see all of the places I haven’t visited yet at a glace…
Foursquare Swarm User
App Store Review

That’s not all there is when it comes to Foursquare Swarm! Click here to check out the user interface and experience!