Location-based services in SA got a face-lift recently when Facebook revealed the local availability of Facebook Places, says Ryan Silberman, COO of marketing company Popimedia.
Facebook Places is designed for people to share information about where they are, connect with friends who may be nearby, and find special offers from their favourite retailers, restaurants and entertainment venues.
The application also lets users share their current location by 'checking in' from their smartphones, much like Foresquare.
According Silberman, for businesses, claiming and managing a place page is a must. “Plain and simple, Facebook Places is a promising new way to connect with customers, prospects and partners.”
Besides SA, Facebook Places has also recently gone live in Bulgaria, Brazil, India, Egypt, the Philippines, and Israel.
Silberman says the application is significant because of Facebook's sheer volume. “Compared to Foursquare, with almost eight million users globally, Facebook, with more than 600 million people already using the platform and close to four million in SA alone, is set to become the location-based service provider of choice.”
Since the platform's unveiling in August last year, location has become increasingly important, especially as daily deals site Groupon has helped shine the spotlight on local deals as a powerful source of marketing for businesses and revenue for Web services.
There are reports that Facebook is also planning to unveil its own deals programme.
Silberman says: “Competitors like Groupon and Google Latitude have a lot of catching up to do as Facebook becomes more ubiquitous.”
As for a couple of the other popular location services, Google said in December that nine million people use Latitude on mobile devices and Foursquare recently reached 7.5 million users.
Silberman believes that with 200 million users on mobile devices around the world, Facebook Places could blow the two away.
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