What is Foursquare? We explain the special social network

Foursquare has been around since 2009, making it almost old in terms of Internet years. Nevertheless, the network is still being used diligently today. Our guide explains what it's all about.

Simply check in: Foursquare relies on shared locations.

Foursquare originated in the United States and was able to quickly build a large audience there. In Germany, the service was never able to establish itself on the same level, but is still not completely unknown.

What is Foursquare and how does it work?

Basically, Foursquare works according to the principle of a social network. Consequently, you connect with friends, acquaintances and other people.

• The special feature, however, is that Foursquare is not about profiles or shared content such as photos.
• Instead, everything revolves around location tracking via GPS. Thanks to this, you can always show where you are on the social network. This process is called check-in.
• Check in at a store or other location, you can also rate them. In this way, Foursquare becomes a recommendation network, where you can, for example, rate your favorite café, a restaurant or a bar.
• Inversely, you can use Foursquare to get recommendations, for example, on vacation in a foreign city.
• For traders, Foursquare is a means to increase visibility.

Meanwhile, there are also links to Twitter and Facebook, so you can share your Foursquare activities there as well. Due to its founding year more than a decade ago, Foursquare occupies a kind of pioneering role, since mobile devices and matching applications were not nearly as common back then as they are today.You can use Foursquare in the browser or in the mobile app (Android / iOS); in any case, the network is completely free.