Will Foursquare's app revival tap into travel market?

Foursquare, once the pioneer in the world of location check-ins and the novelties of “badges” and “mayorship”, has announced a complete brand overhaul – introducing itself as a new travel/recommendation app.

No longer categorised as a social networking app, Foursquare has now split itself into two different apps; the original app becoming more of a discovery tool, directly competing against Yelp’s data-driven suggestion layout while the social aspect of it has been taken to a whole new app named Swarm.

Previously ranked #1,221 among all iOS apps in the US, the change in direction for the app has proven to be somewhat productive with their ranking. They have risen to #394 and their secondary app Swarm is now ranked even higher at #210.

Jon Steinbeck, Foursquare’s VP of product experience, when asked about the brands rechannel advocated the change, mentioning the uses of the app had evolved over time. “[Splitting into two apps] stems from a product decision based on data,”

Steinback said: “We found that certain people used Foursquare to search for places or check in, but very few did both. Those two uses drifted further and further apart, so we decided to split them.”

The big question now is if Foursquare will actually be able to rise from the ashes, and be the market leader like it was made to be. I guess the app ranking game begins.