A Perfect Match—Foursquare’s Recommendations and Uber’s Rides

August 29, 2016 / Global

It’s 9:30 a.m. Saturday morning, and the countdown to brunch in San Francisco has begun. If you don’t pick a place soon, the wait will be more than an hour — far longer than your hungry stomach can take. Or, even trickier, you’re in Croatia and you want to sip some authentic rakija, but you have no idea where to go, how to get there, or even how to ask for directions.

Foursquare and Uber to the rescue!

A pioneer and leader in local recommendations, Foursquare will point you to the perfect avocado toast or find the best underground bar that locals truly love. And thanks to its integration with Uber, you won’t need to waste a single brunch-rush minute or worry about losing your way in the Balkans. You can simply request a ride from within the Foursquare app, and you’re done. No need to type in the address, look up directions, or try to muddle through translations.

Foursquare’s uncanny suggestions are derived from a variety of factors, including your tastes, where you’ve been, and locations that trusted friends and experts have enjoyed. Foursquare also gathers location intelligence from the more than 50 million people that use the company’s consumer apps (Foursquare and Swarm) each month across desktop, mobile web, and apps. Around the world, users have checked into more than 85 million locations nearly 10 billion times, and they’ve left over 87 million tips on Foursquare.

Integration as easy as pushing a “Button”

With this massive amount of data, Foursquare is already great at recommending new venues, restaurants, and experiences. By closing the loop from suggestion to action, Uber’s API further boosts Foursquare’s ability to encourage people to explore the world around them. After users select their destination within Foursquare, they can tap the Uber button on the location page and select from a range of ride options, from uberPOOL to uberX — or maybe even UberSUV (for those big nights out!). The Uber app then requests their ride with the address pre-loaded, removing the headache of travel logistics.

Foursquare is a product-driven organization that prides themselves on providing the best experience for their users. Once they decided (from a product perspective) that integrating Uber would benefit their users, they worked with Button, a mobile monetization platform and Uber API developer, to make the integration seamless. With only a few lines of code, Foursquare was able to embed Button’s interactive Uber Ride Picker into their app. This integration has also contributed to Foursquare’s bottom line: the company earns money through Uber’s affiliate program for each new Uber rider who comes from the Foursquare app.

“Button helped us integrate Uber seamlessly into the Foursquare app experience with minimal effort or ongoing maintenance. Button handles all of the intricate work of integrating with different third-party providers so we can focus on our own core experience.”

— Sam Grossberg, Lead Engineer on Foursquare

Foursquare + Uber = Engaged users

Most importantly, Foursquare’s users love the Uber integration. And, according to their data, the experience has been very sticky. Of the users who utilize the Uber feature in Foursquare, 74 percent did so again the following week. Users that utilize the Uber feature under location pages show an increased activity/engagement rate within Foursquare over users that do not utilize the Uber feature. And Uber users also view more venues and execute more core action clicks than the average Foursquare user.

Three sticky stats

Users who tap the Uber button are two to three times more active than average Foursquare users (based on daily active usage)
74% of users who engage the Uber button in the Foursquare app use it again the following week
Users who tap the Uber button also generate three to four times more venue views and interactions

“This partnership started with a really natural product story — combining Foursquare’s context with Uber’s convenience to enable effortless and unique local experiences. Since launch, user response has been great, as evidenced by incredibly strong re-engagement and the positive feedback we’ve heard from our community.”

—David Ban, Director of Business Development, Foursquare

Positive feedback has been rolling in on Twitter, too:

https://twitter.com/melissatsang/status/642884544329224192?lang=en

Whether they are visitors in a new country navigating their way to a hot spot that Foursquare suggested or hometown locals who spotted a new restaurant that is just outside of their comfort zone, Foursquare users are able to get there effortlessly thanks to the Uber integration. Near or far, Uber makes it possible for users to find a reliable ride to their favorite destinations — anytime, anywhere.

Since working together on bringing Uber to Foursquare’s users, the two companies are finding other ways to work together. In May, Foursquare announced that Uber would start using Foursquare’s database of Points of Interest to improve the accuracy and ease of pickups and drop-offs in the Uber app.

Foursquare and Uber look forward to finding new ways to align their technology and data to help both of their communities explore and celebrate their cities to the fullest.

Get started

To create your own unique experience with the Uber API, check out our ride request guides here and get started on your own integration today.