For example, FourSquare may well be one of
the first companies monetizing context awareness
activities. Foursquare offers location services
delivered by way of embedded software
available for Android phones and the iPhone.
The startup is very innovative in defining fun
and appealing functionalities, such as for an
individual to be recognized as the mayor of a
place where she regularly shows up. The service
incites commercial locations to provide special
offers to their mayors, thus setting up friendly
competitions, and compelling users to attend the
place and buy food/drinks or other services. An
online forum dedicated to the business is also
offered, allowing buzz discussions around it, with
mutual benefits. Actually, FourSquare decided
early to provide context application programming
interfaces (APIs) to third parties, and several
services have already been built on top of
these APIs (Fig. 2).