In its short life (less than a year), Foursquare has attracted a lot of attention as one of a few new location-based social networks that allows you to share your whereabouts via a “check-in” system.
Apparently it is now starting to attract a lot of traffic. Foursquare recently tweeted that they averaged a check-in per second during Saturday January 9th. And the Foursquare TrafficEstimate chart does show a strong growth trend.
Though, it is hard to equate “check-ins” with regular web surfing traffic, as much of this can be done (and is likely being done) via mobile devices such as the iPhone.
While cool, I’m not sure this will become widely accepted by the mainstream. But big local players, such as Yelp, are starting to look at this space. And even if not mainstream, a passionate niche audience is still likely to produce a lot of unique opportunities for marketers, especially given the local angle.