Foursquare To Have Its Location Data Licensed By Microsoft, Receives $15 million Investment

Foursquare just found itself a new investor by the name of Microsoft. The Windows developing giant has reached a licensing agreement with Foursquare, having Foursquare’s ‘valuable’ data being used in products like Bing or Windows Phone OS.

For the data exchange, Microsoft has agreed in investing $15 million in Foursquare’s $35 million Series D funding programme started last December, and according to The Times, Foursquare was valued at $650 million when the deal took place.

Dennis Crowley, Foursquare’s CEO, has reportedly stated that the licensing goes deeper than a standard API integration and will offer access to features like real-time recommendations that aren’t yet part of the API. Microsoft, however, won’t have an exclusive on the data.

“So, in the near future, when you use Microsoft devices powered by the Windows and Windows Phone operating systems and products like Bing, places will be enhanced by Foursquare – to provide contextually-aware experiences and the best recommendations of any service in the world” Foursquare wrote in a blog post.

Foursquare has been a big thing when it first came out. However, in my opinion, Foursquare is slowly decreasing in popularity despite the changes it made and are currently making. Facebook’s Check-In is widely used due to its integration into the social media app and use of access, having other social media apps now coming with check-in functions, giving Foursquare harder times ahead. though, I must admit, the scoring system really does make it unique.

Thank you TheNextWeb for providing us with this information