Foursquare + Uber!
What do Apple, Twitter, Pinterest, Samsung, Microsoft, Yahoo, WeChat and Garmin all have in common? They are among the 100,000 developers who rely on Foursquare Places data. And today, Uber is joining their ranks.
We at Foursquare are thrilled to announce that we are now supplying Points of Interest (POI) data to Uber, everything from the names and locations of restaurants to local businesses, through a global, multi-year agreement. Also, within the United States for a period of time, we have exclusivity with respect to new POI suppliers.
There are a lot of obvious reasons why this is such a big deal to us, but there are also some really interesting nuances to this deal too. On the obvious side, Uber is a phenom. It’s completely changed the way we move through the world, disrupted entrenched transportation industries, created tons of economic opportunities, and all on a seriously global scale. Foursquare will enable Uber to customize, improve and increase the breadth of our non-personal POI location data to enhance Uber’s rider and driver experience. Also, these modifications will also be incorporated into Foursquare’s venue database going forward. It’s a natural fit for us to partner with Uber as a POI supplier.
“The breadth and accuracy of Foursquare’s location intelligence is impressive,” said Emil Michael, Uber’s Chief Business Officer. “With the ability to customize location data, we can make the user experience even better for Uber riders and drivers around the globe.”
By the way, since about a year ago, Uber has also been integrated in the Foursquare app, making it easy to call an Uber from within Foursquare once you’ve found the place you want to go. It feels great to make the circle complete, with Uber integrated into Foursquare and now Foursquare venues integrated into Uber. In fact, we’re so excited by this partnership we’ve also agreed to use Uber for Business exclusively for our employee ride-sharing needs globally.
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