Foursquare makes permanent check-in deal with AmEx
updated 06:35 am EDT, Thu June 23, 2011
Foursquare lands AmEx deal in hopes of expansion
Foursquare Labs, the makers of the popular social networking and geo-location entertainment smartphone app Foursquare, has announced a national deal with American Express. The deal will give users of the app, who also hold and American Express card a discount when they ‘check in’ on their smartphone at certain shops and restaurants. The deal comes at the same time as Foursquare Labs announced that it now has over 10 million users, and after a recent trial of the discounting concept at SXSW in March.
Foursquare will not be gaining any revenue from the current deal. However, it hopes that the new AmEx promotion will cement the business model and ultimately attract more and possibly lucrative deals in the future.
Initially, the deals will be offered at Sports Authority, clothing chain H&M as well as a variety of restaurants and cafes.
American Express VP Edward Gilligan says that the company chose to partner with Foursquare on the venture instead of larger players such as Facebook and Google because of its loyalty mechanism that rewards heavy users. [via New York Times]
