Foursquare, a location intelligence-driven technology company, has launched Places API for Start-Ups, a product that provides access to Foursquare location intelligence capabilities at a price point between the free tier account for non-commercial applications and the Enterprise tier account for private commercial applications. Foursquare Places API for Start-Ups is geared towards startups and SMBs allowing them to integrate applications with Foursquare platform data and capabilities such as global venue database, descriptive place attributes, and Snap-to-Place. The Places API also allows companies to add location search, venue details, and location sharing to applications.
Foursquare's global venue database provides information for millions of global venues and details such as photos, tips, and reviews. The database was created based on the information generated from more than 12 billion check-ins by Foursquare community members. Descriptive place attributes allow applications to add specific details such as "accepts credit cards" from points of interest. According to the company website, Foursquare features descriptive place attributes for more than 105 million points of interest around the world. Snap-to-Place technology enables applications to identify where users are located in real time.
The Places API features more than 45 endpoints for groups including venues, users, photos, tips, check-ins, and lists. Among the Places API endpoints are get venue recommendations, get venue hours, get events at a venue, get a venue's menu, and get trending venues. A complete list of available endpoints is provided in the API documentation.
"The free tier of Foursquare's API is for personal, non-commercial partners and provides access up to 100,000 daily API calls, and the ability to use our API to develop one app," explained a Foursquare representative. "The Places API for Start-Ups is geared towards partners who have a commercial use case for their applications, need to power multiple applications, and need greater call volume and a deeper understanding of place to help inform consumer experiences."
One of the key differences between the Places API Enterprise tier account and the Start-Up tier account is that Start-Up tier account holders receive four tips and photos per venue, while Enterprise account holders have unlimited access. Another key difference between the Places API Enterprise tier account and the Start-Up tier account is the available breadth of access to content. Unlike the Start-Up tier account which has some content access limitations, Enterprise account holders have unlimited access to content as well as unlimited regular and premium daily endpoint calls. At the Enterprise level, Foursquare partners also receive data on visit counts and check-ins (anonymized and aggregated) as well as chain details, which are not available at the other tier levels.
In addition to the Places API, Foursquare also offers the Pilgrim SDK and Places Database. The Pilgrim SDK provides applications a number of location intelligence capabilities such as context-aware notifications, location awareness, and build mobile audience segments. The Places Database is a location repository of data from venues from more than 200 countries and territories and more than 105 million places. Both the Pilgrim SDK and the Places Database are available for any tier of customer on a custom basis, depending on the use case.
For more information about Foursquare products for developers, visit https://developer.foursquare.com.