Manhattan based FourSquare which "lets users “check in” using mobile phones when they visit a specific place or business" is mulling a possible sale after reaching the 1 million user mark. FourSquare users earn rewards and are targeted for specific offers by businesses and marketers based on their location. Context aware services are poised to grow into over a 4 billion dollar advertising market by 2015.



Learn more about the possible sale here.

Businesses try to broaden their audience through geological platforms, “which attach real-world locations to phones.”

Las year, Twitter launched ‘geolocation for tweets’ which locates trendy topics. Now, Google is launching Buzz which supports location-tagging options. The media platform makes a list of nearby places, and users can read information about these places from people in and out their social network. These platforms are prominent because it is an easy and free way to advertise businesses.

Other geolocation platforms are Foursquare, MyTown, BightKite, and Loopt.

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Movie buffs, get your cell phones ready. Sprint has broadened their "mobile marketing coupon campaign" that delivers discounts to subscribers on food and drinks at more than 500 movie theaters nationwide. In their plan to create the world's largest coupon redemption network by having this coupon redemption at 900 theaters come 2010.

How It Works: Text-message coupons are sent to subscribers, they bring their phones to an interactive touchscreen kiosk and scan the given promotion code, it then prints the physical coupon that can be used at concession stands in the theater.

Sprint's strategy is based on retaining subscribers. "The network will allow us to keep track of what each person buys...mobile coupon information is tied to the person's, but it's an opt-in process, so privacy issues are not a concern." says bCode CEO Michael Mak.

The opt-in process will also allow Sprint to re-target consumers with other discounts even after they have left the theater.

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