There’s no “check out” feature for Foursquare, but maybe it’s time.
Interest in the pioneering mobile “check in” app appears to be cooling despite a much-hyped overhaul earlier this summer.
The SoHo firm, once one of New York’s hottest start-ups, has barely moved the needle in active users since its June redesign. Meanwhile, the average time spent on the mobile app has declined, according to comScore data obtained by The Post.
Industry insiders called it an alarming trajectory for a company that has been hailed as the city’s great tech hope and has attracted more than $70 million from investors.
Foursquare, run by CEO Dennis Crowley, became all the rage by letting users share their location and exchange insights on restaurants, stores and other venues.
“Foursquare usage and engagement has topped out and has been flat,” said Sam Hamadeh, CEO of PrivCo.
Foursquare drew between 5 million and 6 million visitors from March to June, when its redesigned app launched. There was a small uptick in June to 5.9 million visitors, compared with 5.3 million in May, according to comScore, which only counts US visitors.
But the bump in users was met with less engagement in June, when people, on average, spent 143.5 minutes on Foursquare versus 150.3 minutes in May. By comparison, overall time spent using mobile apps has been rising.
Foursquare is also behind in the app popularity contest, according to AppData. It falls outside the top 200 free iPhone apps — its latest rank was 217 — while rivals for people’s app attention such as Pinterest and Instagram ranked in the Top 25.
For its part, Foursquare said the redesign has been a success. “Since launching the all-new Foursquare in June, we’ve set records in pretty much every metric we measure internally,” the company said.
The mobile network counts 25 million members, even though comScore’s data shows far fewer active ones.
A prominent venture capitalist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Foursquare backers are pushing for progress.
After its last funding round valued the start-up at about $550 million, investors are feeling anxious, especially after the Facebook initial public offering debacle.
“Foursquare would be a bloodbath if you start having the hemorrhaging that could go around,” said the VC, who is not invested in the company but is familiar with its situation. “With Zynga and Groupon, there is a lot that continues to implode.”
Both Facebook and Groupon hit fresh lows yesterday as the social media bubble continues to deflate.
Last year’s big-money round was led by top VCs like Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Spark Capital.
“It’s great to raise money at a high price, but they have to start delivering the goods,” said one insider.
Foursquare’s revenue is estimated at less than $10 million a year. The company’s ultimate success would be a testament to New York’s tech cred but a failure would be a big setback.
“Foursquare is important psychologically,” one source said. “If anyone can figure it ou they can.”