Foursquare Introduces Hypertrending

Admit I have kind of lost track of Foursquare entirely since its launch ten years ago. , but the general kind of look at what groups are doing is still intriguing.   How might it have implications for retail behavior?  But do people use it?

Foursquare introduces Hypertrending feature: Creepy or cool?
Foursquare unveiled its Hypertrending feature at SXSW 2019, where the location app was first launched 10 years ago.

Hypertrending is a top-down view of the location of all Foursquare users. The Map view provides a real-time look of where users are, with each dot representing a different place and the size of those dots corresponding to the number of users in each place. Each color represents a different type of place, such as a restaurant or a hotel.  ... " 

Improved Check-in

Foursquare checkins become easier, which eases the whole problem of getting loyalty credit, and also makes  the implementation of location based games more powerful.  This all ends up creating better commercial opportunity,

'Checking in' to a Box of Tampax for Charity

In Adage: " ... The CauseWorld App Gives Consumers Something Else to Do With Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt, Would you check in to a box of Tampax like you'd check in to a bar on Foursquare? How about a jar of Miracle Whip? P&G, Kraft and a Silicon Valley startup are betting you will, well, at least for charity ... '

The idea of 'checking in' with location-aware devices is mostly about defined spaces like retail . Checking-in is what you do with a loyalty card, to indicate your loyalty to a atore. The new idea of linking to a specific item takes this to a different space. Related to the idea of manufacturer oriented loyalty.