Last week @Marcus_Andrews asked me to be a guest on his weekly live podcast at Cone. Here, we talk about SocialSmack, the new Twitter layout and Foursquare’s entry into the university space.
Last week @Marcus_Andrews asked me to be a guest on his weekly live podcast at Cone. Here, we talk about SocialSmack, the new Twitter layout and Foursquare’s entry into the university space.
The biggest question marketers have about location-based services is adoption. Forrester’s report in July found that about 4% of adults use an LBS. Since then, Foursquare has grown from two million to three million, Facebook announced it’s new Places product and Gowalla has been boasting of record numbers since the end of August. In short, it’s really difficult to tell exactly how many people are using location-based technology. But what makes it even harder is when location companies keep their usage numbers under wraps. That’s exactly what SCVNGR has been doing.
By my estimate, SCVNGR has about a million downloads, which would place it as the #2 location-based social network (ignoring Brightkite and Loopt since we’re unclear on how many active users they have) behind Foursquare, but ahead of Whrrl and Gowalla.
Here’s how I came to that number:
On August 2, SCVNGR released an update for the iPhone application.
That second point from the bottom prompted my buddy @djcap to tweet about the creative Rickroll. (That twitpic link is what you see above.)
SCVNGR CEO Seth Priebatsch responded:
I was raised to believe that “several” meant anywhere from three to five. So we’re talking about numbers in the 300,000 to 500,000 range at the beginning of August. Since then, Facebook Places appeared and SCVNGR got access to the APIs in advance of public release. The company has also been featured on Mashable at least ten times (my rough count). Last week, SCVNGR announced it surpassed 100,000 downloads in 48 hours! That’s massive growth during the month of August.
Let’s take the middle ground on Seth’s tweet: 400,000.
Add that to the 100,000 at the beginning of September: 500,000
Add the insane growth during the month of August, take into account the users who play via SMS and don’t download an app, and you’re closing in on a million. Now with local businesses diving into SCVNGR and featuring window clings and informational cards about how to play, if SCVNGR isn’t at a million users yet, they will be soon.
I asked a SCVNGR employee about their usage numbers. He just smiled and said, “We’ll let you know when we pass Foursquare.”
This week, I start my full-time position as Emerging Technology Strategist at Allen & Gerritsen. It’s the end of one chapter in my life and the beginning of another. I decided got creative with YouTube Search Stories tool (made popular by Google’s Superbowl commercial) to recap the last few years of my life:
I would be nowhere without the wonderful mentors, friends and colleagues I had through the years, especially those who helped me with my job search. I want to take some time to thank them now.
Above and beyond everyone are my parents, who have supported me emotionally and financially my entire life. Thanks, Mom and Dad!
(Everyone else is listed alphabetically.)
Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter for showing me that resumes don’t have to fit into a box
Meghan M. Biro, founder of TalentCulture and career mentor for me
Scott Farmelant, for showing me the power of good pr
Tony Figliola, my old high school speech coach and good friend
David Goldstein, for trusting his marketing to my creative ideas
David Jordan, for staying in touch post-internship and always looking for opportunities for me
Megan Peet for supporting me through my final years of college
Professor Gerry Powers, for teaching me the good writing is universal
Ellen Rossano, who took my job search on as a personal mission
Rachel Sprung and the entire PRSSA executive board
Professor Steve Quigley, for believing in me and helping me break the traditional PR graduate mold
The loyal crew of insideBoston
The 4th Floor Digital team
Thanks to you all (and anyone I’m forgetting). I would be nowhere without you!
If you take a stroll down Harvard Street near Coolidge Corner in Brookline, MA, you’ll pass a black hole portal that leads to Roxbury. Just before you take your running start to jump through a la Platform 9 3/4, you’ll stop for a closer look and realize that what you see is not in fact a black hole. It’s a large screen linked to a camera that is live broadcasting a street corner in Dudley Square. A set of microphones and speakers links the two locations with audio. You’ll soon discover you’ve stumbled across a virtual street corner. The description of the “digital media public art project” from Virtual Corners.net is below:Beginning in June 2010, a storefront in Coolidge Corner, Brookline, and in Dudley Square, Roxbury will be transformed into large video screens, providing pedestrians of each neighborhood with a portal into one another’s worlds. Running 24/7, life-size screen images and AV technology will enable real-time communication between residents of the two neighborhoods.The neighborhoods we have chosen to connect are transportation and cultural hubs with rich and intertwined histories. They are only 2.4 miles apart and a city bus runs directly between them, yet very few people from either neighborhood visits the other. Using technology developed to bridge geographical distances, Virtual Street Corners instead traverses the social boundaries that separate two important neighborhood centers with significant historical connections.
