Exploring

Online Directory
Business
The Underrated Business Opportunity
Volume 01

FOURSQUARE
FOURSQUARE
SIMILAR APP DEVELOPMENT
www.trootech.com
 Contents
Sr Content Page
1 Black & White -The Basics 1
2 Overhaul - The Implementation 3
3 Outcome - The Result 5
4 Assistance - The Way 6
 Page 1

Black & White

The Basics

Appeal:
When someone ask you what are some good Online business to do, what would be
your natural answer eCommerce site, social commerce, you will say focus on particular
niche or create a market place, you might even suggest affiliate site or travel portal,
hospitality and hotel booking but will you ever suggest any one to go for online
directory? It is because we only focus on the black and white, the short term gain and
we generally miss the long term opportunities and the depth of the concept.

Now what if I tell you that many of the business I mentioned above are basically online
dictionaries, don't believe me stick with me, I will prove it..

Foundation:
What is Online Directories?
Let's define the Concept form very root, Online is just a medium, Directory is list of
information which is organized/categorized, in a particular manner so that the user can
easily find the information he is looking for.

So the most Important element of a directory is Information/Data:

And the three most important functions of an directory are

1 2 3
Collection of Organization of Representation of
Information Information Information
 Page 2

Online directories are based on the same foundation, Information is still the key
component in online directories, it is just slightly different form and representation, so
what are the major component or features of online directories...

• Listing: In offline directory the collection of information was one of the very difficult
task but with the help of Internet, you don't have to go out to and seek information
the information will come to you, any one with related business will log in fill the
details online and boom listed.
• Information Management: It consist of the amount of useful information your
directory provides and the User Experience of the site,

• Information Part • User Experience Part

- Name of Business - Categories
- Type of business - Universal search
- Brief about the business - Sorting of information
- Contact Information: - Filtration
Address, Phone No, Email,
Website, etc.

• Reviews & Rating: One of the differentiating factor between online and offline
directory is reviews and rating which gives much more meaning and authenticity to
the information, it includes mostly three component:
• User Reviews.
• Editor/Publisher Review
• Awards and Recognization

Revenue:
In the end every thing comes down to revenues, what will we get by investing time and
money in any business, the obvious and important return in this investment is data, the
raw database is going to increases with increasing popularity of the platform, and
today data is more valuable than money, but.. but.. it is not that simple, it will take
years and years to capitalize or monetize your data, if you are targeting only data then
it is a great future opportunity but at the same time there is high risk associated with it,
however data is not the only way to monetize your Idea there are many more, but
again I am not going to list down the ways without evidence... No.. No.. Stick with me
and I am going to give you real examples of how this generic Idea of Online directory
is adopted and implemented creatively, and earning a fortune out of it..
 Page 3

Overhaul
The Implementation
by Foursquare

Hope everyone is familiar with Foursquare app, it is a review and rating platform, which
adds the social element and gamification, now let's analyze the platform briefly...

Foursquare = Online directory ?

How many square does it checks

Listing : Yes the businesses can list themselves on foursquare.

Information Management: It shows information like Name, Address, Description,

Photographs about the place and there are many many filtering sorting options
available divided in seven main categories.

Reviews and Rating: Foursquare is actually known as reviews and rating platform,
but it is purely based on users they can rate, any business on a scale of 1 -10 and
write review about it, but there is no editor reviews or rating or awards in it.

Foursquare > Online directory

• Open Nature: Listing is free and very easy in foursquare any one can list there
business just in matter of seconds, it does not require special account or subscription
or any thing
• Social Element: Adding social element just takes Foursquare on a whole different
level, it allows users to create profile, follow, message, share, location sharing,
adding photos
 Page 4

• Gamification: Combining game elements like giving experience badge, points, and
rewards takes engagement on foursquare to even a step further

Now review above three points agin, sensing the conspiracy... what a beautiful
setup .First they made listing easy, then they added influence with social elements and
the final master stroke of gamification gives sense of achievement and kinda addiction
of the platform, so they get what they want on regular basis - 'The Precious Data'..

Focus Niche - Food & Entertainment

Again focusing on a particular niche is very important to make the platform relevant to
user, so they focused on food and entertainment industry, as there user base is
common people and not corporates but other business can also list there business on
the platform as it is a open, but it will not be as effective as with food and
entertainment industry, so yeah they also covered the relevant part as well.

Revenue Models for Foursquare..

As you might have guessed the primary focus is on the data, so there main source of
revenue is also form data monetization, they provide following two ways..
Data Monetization (long term return):
Data licensing: Foursquare provide API and licensing the right to use there data and
Microsoft and Twitter are some of there high profile clients.
Analytics and Insights: Foursquare provide different analytics services like foot step
count, local audience behavior Insights, local trend insights and more to small local
business to help them formulate there strategy..

Advertising Modules (short term return)

Foursquare has quite a few different advertising models I have listed them below
Foursquare Audience Network (FAN): It is quite a unique model developed by
foursquare which displays ads not on the basis of his online behavior ,but offline
behavior, based on the recent places checkin the person will be shown ads on his
screen.
Place - Based Ads: This helps local business run relevant ads based on the location of
the person.
Promoted Place: Promoted pace is just like a sponsored ads on google it will have a
different place of placement above organic result.
Foursquare Ads for small business: It is just like google ads or facebook ads which
gives full control of who can see it..
 Page 5

Outcome
The Result
An startup which was started in the year 2014, is todays one of the largest Internet
directories with..

60+ Million Active users

Annual Revenue Growth rate of more

than 50% form last 3 years

12 Billion+
Checkins (Monthly average 8 million)

The company is estimated to be worth above

$500 Million
 Page​ 6 

Assistance: 
The Way 
 
Similar App Development 

Did  you  ever  imagined  that  just  an  online  directory  could worth $500 Million, 
but, they did it with three steps: 
• Recognizing opportunity. 
• Strategizing the solution. 
• Providing best user experience. 
If  you  have  interested  in  online  directory  or  foursquare,  or  have  an  Idea  of 
your  own,  for  which  you  require  assistance  in  development,  then  you  must 
check  out  the  Foursquare  similar  app  development  by  TRooTech,  where  we 
have  extensively  studied  the  platform,  and  will  help  you  make  your  own 
online directory as good as Foursquare 

Visit Following Link for more info 

Foursquare similar app development 
Similar App Development 
www.trootech.com