 I'm Ellis Hamburger with The Verge here at South by Southwest on a roof with Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley. How's it going, Dennis? Doing well. How are you doing? Doing very well, thanks. All right. So it's been a few years since you guys made a big splash at South by Southwest. What's changed for you guys since then? Well for us, I mean we launched four years ago and we're a big company now. We've got 160 people across three offices. We've got 30 million people using our products. And it's just like Foursquare is big now. And so we came down here four years ago just to introduce what we were doing and really just to see if anyone even thought it was interesting. Like hey, if we take game mechanics and overlay it with the real world with check-ins, like is that something you guys like? And to come back four years later and to still see all these places trending with hundreds of check-ins, like it's awesome for us. Seems like you guys have started to really focus on recommendations. And I mean I found an amazing coffee shop yesterday. Yeah, that's great. Like when did you kind of start to think that maybe that's where you needed to head? So we started thinking about that when we were still doing Dodgeball while we were at Google. And we had all this check-in, when I say all this check-in data with Dodgeball, it wasn't a lot. It was probably tens of thousands of check-ins as opposed to the three billion that we have with Foursquare. But we always knew that there was really good data in the signal that these people go to these types of places and this is where their friends go and these are the places that they go back to. And we knew we wanted to do that with Foursquare. We just knew it was very difficult to get a lot of that check-in data in order to do that. So one of the big original ideas with Foursquare is like, you know, let's try to turn it into a game initially to see if we can get people to give us a lot of that data and then we'll be able to kind of flip the switch on it. And it took us a couple of years to do it before it's like, you know all those check-ins that you thought you were just giving us as part of this game? Well it turns out that they go into this recommendation engine and you've basically been telling us what you like for the last two years and now we can tell you guys like the places that we think you would like and the places that your friends like. And I know you guys this week launched an update so it makes it even easier to check in, you know, maybe from 10 seconds to more like three. What was kind of the impetus behind making a move like that? I mean are people having check-in fatigue or are you just trying to make it as easy as possible to provide that data to you guys? Even if it means, you know, taking the check-in experience from 15 seconds down to 10 seconds, it's great. And then a lot of the work that we're doing now, you know, trying to like understand the passive signals that come from your phone, like, you know, can we do things where we buzz your phone and we remind you to check in or we just automatically check you in if you've been in the convention center for 10 minutes or so, if your phone's been there. Like can we take those signals and turn those signals into an easier way for people to share? I think that's one of the big questions of our age is how to not be annoying with push notifications. Yeah, yeah. Is that in part a hardware limitation because let's say on iOS you can't be constantly pinging to see what somebody's up to or is it something that you guys kind of need to work on with science and algorithms? And so, you know, like the background location stuff is a little bit tricky just because it drains the battery very quickly. This is true on iPhone, it's true on Android. And so, you know, we launched a feature in 2000, I think 2011 called Radar. The idea is like you turn radar on and as you just walk through the city Foursquare just tells you about the things that are interesting. And it works but like it might not be worth the, you know, the 40% battery trade-off that you get from it. But we, like, I think we all recognize internally as a company like this is the direction that all this stuff is going. You know, there's a great example that I reference all the time. Like I've left the office back in New York at like nine o'clock once and then as soon as I, you know, as soon as I leave the office and as soon as my phone moves two blocks north, like Foursquare can sniff that out. It's like, oh, you're on the move and you're heading in this direction. Did you know that five of your friends are checked in at the karaoke place three blocks away? And it buzzes and I look at my phone and I'm like, of course I want to know that and of course I want to stop by just for a second. So here at South by people discovery apps have been popular and you keep seeing iterations but nothing that really makes a whole lot of sense. Like well, won't buzz your phone because this person knows your cousin and you also like mad men. Like does that work or is, are we going to reach a point where this is really valuable for people that you don't know or is it just on Foursquare where you want to find people that you do know? Yeah, it's going to, it's tricky, right? Because you have to sniff out someone's context and so you can't just be buzzing people all the time about every little thing that we think might be interesting. So one of the things that we're getting good at is like recognizing, hey, in this city, in this neighborhood, are you a local or are you a tourist? Does your phone spend a lot of time in Austin? Well no, but it spends a lot, you know, it spends four days a year. And so like Foursquare has like, it can, it understands which neighborhoods I know about. And so if I can go outside of those neighborhoods, maybe that's when it turns the dial up and it's like, now we're going to start telling you more aggressively about the things that, you know, are interesting in this neighborhood. But once you get back to someplace familiar, it just turns the dial down a little bit. We're here at South By this year. Where's Foursquare next year at South By? What does it look like? Because you guys update the app every two weeks. It could be a completely different animal. From a UX perspective, it's hard to tell because we're always doing so much work there. But you know, like a big part of the Foursquare journey has been telling the story to people as it evolves. And that's why we come down here every year because it's like a different chapter of what we're doing. In 2009, it was, you know, points and badges, and in 2011, we showed what we were doing with the Explore recommendation engine and the MX deals for the first time. And you know, now I think people are starting to really understand like the personalized local search and the social maps aspect of it. And I think a year from now, that'll be a lot more commonplace. At the same time, I'm still psyched that I can pull up my phone at any moment and see that, hey, there are 600 people checked in at the Driskell and there are 200 people checking at the convention center and use that as a guide for where to go next. That's always a lot of fun. Thanks so much for coming out with us, Dennis. Yeah, thank you for having me. Appreciate it.
 I'm Ellis Hamburger with The Verge here at South by Southwest on a roof with Foursquare
 CEO Dennis Crowley.
 How's it going, Dennis?
 Doing well.
 How are you doing?
 Doing very well, thanks.
 All right.
 So it's been a few years since you guys made a big splash at South by Southwest.
 What's changed for you guys since then?
 Well for us, I mean we launched four years ago and we're a big company now.
 We've got 160 people across three offices.
 We've got 30 million people using our products.
 And it's just like Foursquare is big now.
 And so we came down here four years ago just to introduce what we were doing and really
 just to see if anyone even thought it was interesting.
 Like hey, if we take game mechanics and overlay it with the real world with check-ins, like
 is that something you guys like?
 And to come back four years later and to still see all these places trending with hundreds
 of check-ins, like it's awesome for us.
 Seems like you guys have started to really focus on recommendations.
 And I mean I found an amazing coffee shop yesterday.
 Yeah, that's great.
 Like when did you kind of start to think that maybe that's where you needed to head?
 So we started thinking about that when we were still doing Dodgeball while we were at
 Google.
 And we had all this check-in, when I say all this check-in data with Dodgeball, it wasn't
 a lot.
 It was probably tens of thousands of check-ins as opposed to the three billion that we have
 with Foursquare.
 But we always knew that there was really good data in the signal that these people go to
 these types of places and this is where their friends go and these are the places that they
 go back to.
 And we knew we wanted to do that with Foursquare.
 We just knew it was very difficult to get a lot of that check-in data in order to do
 that.
 So one of the big original ideas with Foursquare is like, you know, let's try to turn it into
 a game initially to see if we can get people to give us a lot of that data and then we'll
 be able to kind of flip the switch on it.
 And it took us a couple of years to do it before it's like, you know all those check-ins
 that you thought you were just giving us as part of this game?
 Well it turns out that they go into this recommendation engine and you've basically been telling us
 what you like for the last two years and now we can tell you guys like the places that
 we think you would like and the places that your friends like.
 And I know you guys this week launched an update so it makes it even easier to check
 in, you know, maybe from 10 seconds to more like three.
 What was kind of the impetus behind making a move like that?
 I mean are people having check-in fatigue or are you just trying to make it as easy
 as possible to provide that data to you guys?
 Even if it means, you know, taking the check-in experience from 15 seconds down to 10 seconds,
 it's great.
 And then a lot of the work that we're doing now, you know, trying to like understand the
 passive signals that come from your phone, like, you know, can we do things where we
 buzz your phone and we remind you to check in or we just automatically check you in if
 you've been in the convention center for 10 minutes or so, if your phone's been there.
 Like can we take those signals and turn those signals into an easier way for people to share?
 I think that's one of the big questions of our age is how to not be annoying with push
 notifications.
 Yeah, yeah.
 Is that in part a hardware limitation because let's say on iOS you can't be constantly pinging
 to see what somebody's up to or is it something that you guys kind of need to work on with
 science and algorithms?
 And so, you know, like the background location stuff is a little bit tricky just because
 it drains the battery very quickly.
 This is true on iPhone, it's true on Android.
 And so, you know, we launched a feature in 2000, I think 2011 called Radar.
 The idea is like you turn radar on and as you just walk through the city Foursquare
 just tells you about the things that are interesting.
 And it works but like it might not be worth the, you know, the 40% battery trade-off that
 you get from it.
 But we, like, I think we all recognize internally as a company like this is the direction that
 all this stuff is going.
 You know, there's a great example that I reference all the time.
 Like I've left the office back in New York at like nine o'clock once and then as soon
 as I, you know, as soon as I leave the office and as soon as my phone moves two blocks north,
 like Foursquare can sniff that out.
 It's like, oh, you're on the move and you're heading in this direction.
 Did you know that five of your friends are checked in at the karaoke place three blocks
 away?
 And it buzzes and I look at my phone and I'm like, of course I want to know that and of
 course I want to stop by just for a second.
 So here at South by people discovery apps have been popular and you keep seeing iterations
 but nothing that really makes a whole lot of sense.
 Like well, won't buzz your phone because this person knows your cousin and you also like
 mad men.
 Like does that work or is, are we going to reach a point where this is really valuable
 for people that you don't know or is it just on Foursquare where you want to find people
 that you do know?
 Yeah, it's going to, it's tricky, right?
 Because you have to sniff out someone's context and so you can't just be buzzing people all
 the time about every little thing that we think might be interesting.
 So one of the things that we're getting good at is like recognizing, hey, in this city,
 in this neighborhood, are you a local or are you a tourist?
 Does your phone spend a lot of time in Austin?
 Well no, but it spends a lot, you know, it spends four days a year.
 And so like Foursquare has like, it can, it understands which neighborhoods I know about.
 And so if I can go outside of those neighborhoods, maybe that's when it turns the dial up and
 it's like, now we're going to start telling you more aggressively about the things that,
 you know, are interesting in this neighborhood.
 But once you get back to someplace familiar, it just turns the dial down a little bit.
 We're here at South By this year.
 Where's Foursquare next year at South By?
 What does it look like?
 Because you guys update the app every two weeks.
 It could be a completely different animal.
 From a UX perspective, it's hard to tell because we're always doing so much work there.
 But you know, like a big part of the Foursquare journey has been telling the story to people
 as it evolves.
 And that's why we come down here every year because it's like a different chapter of what
 we're doing.
 In 2009, it was, you know, points and badges, and in 2011, we showed what we were doing
 with the Explore recommendation engine and the MX deals for the first time.
 And you know, now I think people are starting to really understand like the personalized
 local search and the social maps aspect of it.
 And I think a year from now, that'll be a lot more commonplace.
 At the same time, I'm still psyched that I can pull up my phone at any moment and see
 that, hey, there are 600 people checked in at the Driskell and there are 200 people checking
 at the convention center and use that as a guide for where to go next.
 That's always a lot of fun.
 Thanks so much for coming out with us, Dennis.
 Yeah, thank you for having me.
 Appreciate it.