A million check-ins isn’t cool. You know what’s cool?

Sep 20th

So… last week, we passed a billion check-ins. (!!!)

Because we’re data nerds, we put together a video of what a week of check-ins looks like on foursquare. We think it’s pretty, but, more than that, there’s some really awesome data there. Watch it a couple of times to see the patterns as night settles over the globe, as venue categories ebb and flow on different continents, and as teeming cities wake up and fall asleep. It’s even more awesome in full-screen, in all its HD glory.

Anyway, a billion check-ins was pretty cool. Thanks for helping us get there, and we look forward to the next quadrillion.

Posted in Foursquare

55 Comments

  • http://thefuturebuzz.com AdamSinger

    Congrats to the whole foursquare team – amazing work!

  • Anonymous

    so who and where was number 1,000,000,000?

  • http://socialdino.com socialDino

    Amazing!! Excellent video and congrats on the billion!

  • http://twitter.com/ellebetz Elle Cooke

    That’s wild. The video is great too. The sheer amount of information made my head half explode. Congrats, guys and girls!

  • http://twitter.com/geometrisis jojo

    did he owned a badge for that check in? :p

  • Thieske

    Pretty busy in The Netherlands. 

  • http://twitter.com/scotttopic Scott Irvin

    that’s fantastic, great job. i love how nightlife spikes on friday night!

  • Anonymous

    Very Cool

  • http://supplydemanded.com David Haber

    This is awesome.  Congrats guys!

  • Anonymous

    What tools did you use to make that viz/video? Looks freaking awesome.

  • http://iamthan.com Than R

    Congrats! Woohoo!!

  • Inquiz

    Awesome!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=194604130 Brett Suddreth

    Congrats! So happy that all of your hard work at the foursquare HQ is paying off. :)

  • Bigboom2002

    Cool!

  • http://twitter.com/MorningDew777 Jag

    nice video stuff, congrats

  • http://twitter.com/x333xxx John Fox

    Absolutely fascinating. In our global community it seemed to be folk in The Netherlands who were constantly checking in, thus ensuring that that country seemed the brightest on the map of the world!

    I wonder if there’s a particular local driver for Foursquare’s popularity in that country? Might be worth investigating the phenomena further?

  • Anonymous

    This video needs a soundtrack. Tron Legacy’s Daft Punk soundtrack.

  • ckhendry

    Video was really cool!  Congrats!

  • http://twitter.com/francoismat Francois Mathieu

    Congrats! The future is bright!

  • http://twitter.com/Magis69 Paulius Masiliauskas

    Hahaha, I love how my city (and my country) was shining all week straight. :)

  • http://twitter.com/lankybutmacho lankybutmacho

    Thanks! The visualization was mostly created with Processing (processing.org). The data was provided by our data team from the hadoop/hive infrastructure they’ve built for analytical purposes (more on that here:engineering.foursquare.com/​2011/​03/​24/​big-data-foursquare-slides-from-our-recent-talk/​). I created the map tiles using a great open source app called TileMill (mapbox.com/​tilemill/​), and loaded them into my Processing sketch with the Modest Maps library (code.google.com/​p/​modestmaps/​). A few things at the end were added with After Effects (the zoom-in bubbles and the glow on the category bars)

  • http://twitter.com/fgosselin Florent Gosselin

    Congrats! 
    Do you have an idea about Events launch date ? 

  • http://twitter.com/FashionistoBlog Le Boulevardier

    really amazing to see the diverse intensity of places and expectations all over the word

  • Erik

    And the Netherlands as a permanent glow in the dark!

  • http://twitter.com/danhannigan Dan Hannigan

    Such an awesome video! I could watch that four hours. Congrats Foursquare!

  • frans jan

    The Netherlands, the country that never sleeps.

  • Jeffdachs

    that was really cool. it would be awesome if they showed a constant stream of check-ins.

  • Jeffdachs

    that was really cool. it would be awesome if they showed a constant stream of check-ins.

  • Jeffdachs

    that was really cool. it would be awesome if they showed a constant stream of check-ins.

  • Jeffdachs

    that was really cool. it would be awesome if they showed a constant stream of check-ins.

  • Mitch

    I noticed that in the United States there seems to be a line of check ins just before the plain states.  Right down the borders of ND, SD, Nebraska, Kansas, etc.  Then it doesn’t get bright again until California.  
    I think it would be cool to see a week of your city.  Find out where people migrate during the day and night in your own city.

  • Anh Nguyễn

    Today is my first day joining this social network. Seem very cool! :)

  • Anonymous

    Did number 1,000,000,000 get the coolest badge ever????

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=779588884 Paulla Santana

    nice job guys, but you spelled “São Paulo” wrong!

    ;)

  • Dog

    Cool, but does Foursquare earn any money?
    Dog

  • http://blog.dimok.ru/ dimok

    nicely done! grats from Russian community!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000482660643 Alexandre Biondo

    Hahahhaa! Amazing Foursquare Team! Nice phrase to use in this moment, congratulations for the growth!

  • http://zachcole.com Zach Cole

    This is huge! Congrats!

  • http://about.me/JohnnieXu Johnnie Xu

    This is absolutely awesome! I love check-in!

  • http://twitter.com/greenrobotblog GreenRobotBlog

    These types of videos are awesome – I saw another recently of tweets following the quake in the US east coast. Seeing how communications ripple out based on time or a big event is really interesting!

  • Josephine du Lac

    Will you guys be hooking up with Google+ anytime soon?

  • Mark_vamo

    Popular at the netherlands, its lighted all time

  • http://www.facebook.com/mmarqueti Marcelo Avellar Marqueti

    nice data visualization! sao paulo loves foursquare!

  • http://twitter.com/vicenteigor11 Igor Vicente

    Is an amazing video, congratulations to the team for its first billion!

  • Anonymous

    Wauw, is The Netherlands one of the top 3 countries?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1032692674 Blair CJ Kennedy

    nice , but dont forget about us here in New Zealand, cant even see it on the map

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000682647639 Steven Rayz

    Iv’e BEEN started! Let’s talk more at 2 million. lol

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000682647639 Steven Rayz

    I’ve BEEN here. So lets talk at 2 billion, yeah? lol

  • Terry Rombough

    yea the night patterns are awesome.  

  • Maurits

    Not really a investigation, but as an inhabitant of the Netherlands i can say thay nearly every shop and busstop and every train station is in the database. Mobile internet availability is good and a lot of people have smartphones.

  • MaNi

    Whole lot of African continent doesn’t use FSQ? 

  • MaNi

    Whole lot of African continent doesn’t use FSQ? 

  • http://www.seomagnify.com High pr backlinks

    Thanks

  • http://www.facebook.com/danuberz Daniel Park

    (Netherlands)^-1 == Australia
    We have the worst reception, little users, and a lot of poor venue maintenance. Wish I was Dutch :P

  • Anonymous

    That’s a pretty big number..