How Would I Change @Gowalla?
Gowalla, incase you're not familiar with this particular breed of startup, is a geo-location powered platform for sharing your location with friends and the public.
According to Gowalla, their primary uses are as follows:
- Share your experiences through Gowalla with your Facebook & Twitter friends.
- Stamp your passport and earn rewards at the places that you visit.
- Discover and create locations anywhere in the world with your iPhone.
That there is the problem, as in my opinion I think they're missing a trick, one that may have the ability of changing the direction of the business model.
Granted, as a user I'm perfectly capable of completing each of the three steps outlined, and somewhat enjoy the experience. However, the interaction ends there. Beyond their standard scenarios, I don't have a reason to use Gowalla at times that I'm at home or at a location that I would prefer to be kept private.
I don't think it's wildly inaccurate to assume most users aren't comfortable with posting the location of their home residence on Gowalla. That's the goldmine right there. If I were able to update on my activity while at an undisclosed 'home' location, I'd be a much more active user.
There's no reason to limit the use cases for a platform that is perfectly capable of supporting a localised update feature. For now, I've moved the Gowalla iPhone app to the second page of my iPhone in the hopes that it will encourage me to make more use of it.
How would you like to see Gowalla increase their usage stats? Perhaps you just don't see the point? Either way, leave a comment below.
