Foursquare’s Dennis Crowley took the stage at DLD today in Munich. He shared a few facts and figures about the company.
Although still barely two years old, Foursquare is now about 50 employees serving 6 million users and built on some $20 million of V.C. money; estimates value it at $250 million. About 40 per cent of its traffic is international.
Even with the threat of Facebook and competition from Groupon, Crowley sees things pretty clear: “The main difference between [us and Facebook] is we have a much more tightly curated social graph. On Facebook I have 1000 friends. On Foursquare I have 80 people in New York I share with,” he said. “They are different products for different audiences.”
As far as the deal-of-the-day site Groupon goes, it seems to be approaching the problem from the opposite end. Foursquare and Groupon are both looking to pursue relationships with local merchants at their core. Foursquare has taken the location-based services route, while Groupon began by dealing with merchants directly. Of course, Facebook’s hundreds of millions of users could be a threat to both.
Crowley denies he is looking to sell, but seemed pretty comfortable on stage beside Andrew Mason, CEO of Groupon. Groupon turned down a $6 billion offer from Google. It seems that Foursquare and Groupon could be powerful if they worked together. As it stands now, Crowley is well aware there may be trouble ahead.
“We are 50 people, and to me it sounds like a huge company,” Crowley said. “We still have a huge fight in front of us (…) We need to stay humble.”