Foursquare adds five new languages, talks expansion

By Molly McHugh February 14, 2011

Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley took the stage at Mobile World Congress today and announced Foursquare’s impressive growth and coming changes, according to The New York Times. Most notably, Foursquare will add give new languages to its site: Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Japanese. These will be introduced with the coming update of the app (2.2.5), which is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android today.

In addition to giving a wider demographic the ability to use Foursquare, Crowley also talked about the wave of users jumping on board. The app is now up to 6.5 million users and two million check-ins each day – which is equal to a 3,400 percent growth over 2010. We already knew Foursquare had had a remarkable year, and now Crowley says its ready to build on that momentum.

This growth will fuel Foursquare’s dive into international waters. “People think that Foursquare is just limited to hipsters in New York and San Francisco,” Crowley said at the announcement. “But we’re seeing it used all over the world and for more than just bars.” He noted that large European cities have experienced the most noticeable growth, and the language additions should only encourage this. Crowley made it quite clear Foursquare is going global and not looking back.

The additional data is recouping from its massive amount of users will also help the company alter operations. Crowley suggested it’s heading toward suggesting locations for users based on their preferences, as well as storing places you’re interested in for future visits.

All pretty impressive for a product that’s had to face nonstop competition in the geo-social scene this year.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Before coming to Digital Trends, Molly worked as a freelance writer, occasional photographer, and general technical lackey…

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