Foursquare Launches Geolocation API For Developers, SMBs

Foursquare is offering small businesses (SMBs) and startups access to its geolocation API, according to VentureBeat reports on Friday (April 13).

The company already offers location identification services to companies like Snapchat and Uber, enabling geolocation within their own platforms. Now, Foursquare is extending this service to SMBs via its Places API for Startups.

The solution is designed for app developers and small firms that want to integrate location data into their own platforms in real time. Reports noted that the API can enable developers and SMBs to add features like location sharing and search in their solutions, while Foursquare can also link its own users’ tips, photos and reviews into third-party apps with the API.

According to the publication, Foursquare has the data of more than 12 billion user check-ins on its platform that it extends to 125,000 businesses that use that location information. The tool for SMBs and developers starts at $599, reports said, with Google Places API and Facebook Places Graph offering similar services.

Foursquare began strengthening its B2B services in 2015 following partnerships with Twitter and Microsoft as demand for Big Data increased. The following year, the firm revealed an extended partnership with Twitter for precise location tagging attached to collections of tweets, not only individual tweets.

Ever since, demand for data has continued, and increasingly, companies are deploying API to facilitate data sharing.

According to Rohit Mahna, senior vice president and general manager of financial services at customer service success platform Salesforce, the trend is an effort by companies to offer personalized, custom end-user experiences.

“It’s become all about digital transformation, about thinking about things through the mind of a customer,” he told PYMNTS earlier this month. “It’s about figuring out what they want from an experience and then giving them those services they want in the right way.”

“Sometimes it’s about competition, sometimes it’s a regulation thing, but we’re really seeing more and more companies [that] truly want to rethink their business processes and models to better incorporate and take real advantage of APIs,” he continued. “Every chief digital officer at every bank right now is thinking about APIs, or they should be, because they are realizing that APIs can take even legacy data and make it actionable to the people on the front lines.”