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30/01/2011 by
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Facebook Deals – Watch Out Foursquare

Today Facebook launched another new service –  Facebook Deals – which will look to help users make the most of local deals and should provide marketers with another great tool to make themselves relevant within the Facebook environment.

Last November Facebook already launched the service in the States. Besides the United Kingdom, it will also be available in Spain, Germany, Italy and France. Will this lead to FourSquare’s demise?

Facebook Deals will allow brands to offer special deals to people using Facebook Places to check into certain location. Launch partners of the initiative include Starbucks, Mazda and Argos.

This is of course very similar to FourSquare – the social media darling of 2010 who we have heard very little from so far in 2011. Location based services are smoking hot, with both Facebook and Google recently entering the space as they have realised its potential.

Both Facebook and Google already have an incredible amount of data which helps them target consumers with relevant messages at the right time – but adding location to their arsenal will open up a whole new host of possibilities.

FourSquare captured the imagination of the social media incrowds, grew 3,400% (pretty impressive, right?) and has just signed up its 6 millionth member. Great statistics for a company that’s only a year old, but they are some way of the critical mass of 500 million users which Facebook can currently boast. And this critical mass will be key.

For some the FourSquare game-like features are key, but they are also seen as somewhat geeky and could put off the large group of late adopters. For a while badges are pretty cool, but FourSquare will need to start adding real value to keep people interested.

While in New York, the service provided extremely valuable as most places had WiFi and many users left valuable feedback about menu’s, prizes, service and so on. In London I have yet to see similar value from the service.

What About You?
Will FourSquare grow quickly enough through the network effect, or will Facebook’s 500 million users overpower the start up service with their new Facebook Places and Facebook Deals features? Tell us in the comments!