{"id":12034,"date":"2023-03-13T22:00:51","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T02:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/?p=12034"},"modified":"2023-03-13T22:00:51","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T02:00:51","slug":"linked-gowalla-returns-to-see-if-location-based-networking-is-ready-for-its-mainstream-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2023\/03\/13\/linked-gowalla-returns-to-see-if-location-based-networking-is-ready-for-its-mainstream-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"Linked: &#8220;Gowalla returns to see if location-based networking is ready for its mainstream moment&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:864,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/techcrunch.com\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/10\\\/gowalla-location-based-social-app\\\/?guccounter=1&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20251103173500\\\/https:\\\/\\\/techcrunch.com\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/10\\\/gowalla-location-based-social-app\\\/?guccounter=1&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-05 04:02:00&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-11 05:18:22&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-16 03:36:07&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-23 02:01:16&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-26 11:33:34&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-29 23:32:00&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-03 00:30:23&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-07 08:45:40&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-10 14:59:25&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-17 02:17:46&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-22 03:08:01&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-27 14:04:19&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-30 22:56:10&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-06 12:39:27&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-11 00:49:29&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-16 09:11:33&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-22 14:07:04&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-22 14:07:04&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/03\/10\/gowalla-location-based-social-app\/?guccounter=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Via TechCrunch<\/a>:\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<em>Already, Gowalla has a prototypical version of this approach in play: its \u201cstreet team\u201d feature, which provides additional features and early beta access to users who pay a small recurring membership fee. Williams says one of the things that has changed is the sheer scale of mobile users, which means that even if only a small percentage of your overall user base wants to pay up, you stand a chance of building something that can successfully monetize in this way. Location-based networking app Zenly, which Snap acquired and then shut down, much to the chagrin of its many million active users, is a great example of an app that had that kind of scale in the same space Gowalla is targeting, he added.<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>and<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<em>Gowalla has an impressive list of notable investors this time around, including MG Siegler from GV (who actually covered Gowalla in its original form very early on for TechCrunch when he was a writer here). I spoke to Siegler about why he\u2019s optimistic the timing is right for a location-based networking comeback. He said that all his experience has led him to the conclusion that everything in tech comes back around, and the question of whether a startup is successful comes down to timing.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI sort of believe, for a lot of startups, if they just have a long enough time horizon, they can be in the right place at the right time, for something to work,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>While Gowalla didn\u2019t have both the timing and the place right the first time, he said that Williams and his team are poised to capitalize with this resurrection, given signals like the Zenly success already mentioned above.<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I\u2019m so happy to see Gowalla back. Their designs were so Apple-Like and FourSquare won with the network effect but I still continued checking in to both apps for years until Gowalla shut down. I\u2019ve been in their Street Team Beta for a couple of years and it\u2019s finally ready for prime time. The only ding is that their POI database is 100% user generated so every time I go somewhere, I\u2019m the first person to check in. I really wish they\u2019d pony up and pay for Google Maps or TomTom POI APIs. I know they won\u2019t dare license POIs from FourSquare but not having a base map makes it hard to get started when you are one of only a couple of hundred users globally.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Via TechCrunch:\u00a0 Already, Gowalla has a prototypical version of this approach in play: its \u201cstreet team\u201d feature, which&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2023-03-14T02:00:59Z","apple_news_api_id":"8e4f3da0-dd07-40e9-ad27-bbabe522dcf4","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2023-03-14T02:01:00Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Ajk89oN0HQOmtJ7ur5SLc9A","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-linked","7":"cs-entry","8":"cs-video-wrap"},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-386","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3956,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2013\/07\/16\/linked-the-gowalla-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":12034,"position":0},"title":"\u2605 Linked: The Gowalla Story","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"July 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"via Medium: Listen to your users more than the press. Don\u2019t get sucked into the gravity hole between you and your competition. Ruthlessly run your own path, not someone else\u2019s. Great article from Josh Williams, founder of Gowalla and currently at Facebook. I loved Gowalla. It was the best check-in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Linked&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1003,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2010\/09\/06\/why-i-love-brightkite\/","url_meta":{"origin":12034,"position":1},"title":"\u2605 Why I Love Brightkite","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"September 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"As I stated in a post in late February announcing my joining Brightkite as a community manager, I could have applied to any location based social network in the world but I wanted to work at Brightkite. Here is one of the reasons why. This morning, I sampled the nearby\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Social Media&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Social Media","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/social-media\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Comparing Location Based Networks","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4087\/4964769926_faca9ca582_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3332,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/12\/07\/goodbye-gowalla\/","url_meta":{"origin":12034,"position":2},"title":"\u2605 Goodbye Gowalla","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"December 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"via Gowalla's Blog (which is inconveniently hosted on Tumblr which goes down often and could go away one day so much for data longevity and this blog even being around 1 year from now): Gowalla, as a service, will be winding down at the end of January. We plan to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Rants&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Rants","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/rants\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.tumblr.com\/tumblr_lvlmbqecFS1qzo4wm.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2199,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/04\/13\/2011-the-year-the-check-in-died\/","url_meta":{"origin":12034,"position":3},"title":"\u2605 &#8220;2011: The Year the Check-in Died&#8221;","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"April 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"via ReadWriteWeb: All of this doesn't mean, however, that Gowalla, Foursquare, MyTown, Loopt and all the services with check-ins at their core are necessarily going out of business. It\u00a0does mean they need to find a way to deliver deep value to people\u00a0beyond the check-in. And unless Facebook and Google provide\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Linked&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6561,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2017\/01\/05\/technology-is-swarm-safe-from-foursquares-demise\/","url_meta":{"origin":12034,"position":4},"title":"Technology: Is Swarm safe from Foursquare&#8217;s Demise?","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"January 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Back when I joined in 2007 until today, Foursquare has been a utility. It is in essence indispensable. I believe in Check-In services so much that I even worked at Brightkite back in 2010 for a short sting before the service was closed mostly in part due to Foursquare\u2019s dominance\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1839,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/03\/15\/photo-post-austin-texas-sxsw-2011\/","url_meta":{"origin":12034,"position":5},"title":"\u2605 Photo Post &#8211; Austin Texas, SXSW 2011","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"March 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Each year, tens of thousands of geeks descend upon the small Texas town of Austin to attend SXSW Interactive. SXSW also hosts Film & Music fans but, 5 days in Austin during SXSW is all I can handle. It's the only event where one venue has over 1,000 people checked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gowalla Coaster @ Gingerman in Austin","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5172\/5518844748_f0781467f8_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5172\/5518844748_f0781467f8_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5172\/5518844748_f0781467f8_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}