This just in: Last year's top event on Foursquare was the Jon Stewart–Steven Colbert "Rally To Restore Sanity" in Washington (take that. Glen Beck!), and the last country to check in was North Korea, the company disclosed Monday.
About 215,000 people attended the Oct 30, 2010, Rally To Restore Sanity, CBS News estimated at the time. Foursquare says 30,525 people checked in, nearly 15 percent of the number estimated to have shown on at the National Mall. The rally is listed by Foursquare as "Biggest Event," but an even larger number, about 50,000 people, "checked in" on Election Day, Nov. 2, at 23,500 polling places.
Foursquare says it now has 6 million members, people who for some reason are happy to announce their locations to collect virtual badges and, with perseverance, earn the title "mayor" of a location. That, along with $2.50, will get you a ride on a New York City subway, but it also hasn't deterred me from accumulating seven mayorships.
In a year for which Foursquare claimed 3,400 percent growth, some trends illustrated in an infographic seem obvious, and some don't. Checking in when you eat, go to work or shop were the top areas, but nightlife and parks — where one might think you'd want to discover like-minded friends — were pretty low on the list.
People start using Foursquare pretty heavily at 8 a.m., but at 4 a.m. activity is pretty thin -- except for a healthy-looking number of check-ins at work which eclipse all other categories at that unholy hour. Could that number include a fair amount of people pretending to be on the job, an improvement on the days when you had to get a co-worker to punch the time clock for you?
A grand total of 381,576,305 people checked in using Foursquare in 2010, and from every country — including, somehow, North Korea.
Perhaps most perplexing is the fact that 224 Wendys checked into a Wendy's last year — which seems small — and that there is only one Wendy who actually is the mayor of a Wendy's.
Foursquare did not have stats on how many places got only one check-in — ouch! But one of the venues to which there were no return customers can be excused: Space.
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See Also:
- Foursquare
- You're a Big Deal on Foursquare. But Are You the Mayor of Space?
- Inside Foursquare: Checking In Before the Party Started (Part I)
- Inside Foursquare: Checking In Before the Party Started (Part II)
- Yelp Takes On Foursquare in Latest iPhone App Upgrade
- Foursquare Unlocks '$20 Million in Funding' Badge
- Foursquare On The Verge of a VC Cash Infusion: WSJ.com
