A certain pizza chain in the UK owes Facebook and Foursquare (.com) more than a Thank You note. Its e-commerce saw growth of over 60 per cent in 26 weeks, thanks to affiliate marketing and related promotions on those platforms. <table style="width: 106px; height: 224px" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="106" align="right" border="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="/imagedata/2010/jul/web-column.jpg" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr> <td> Your location might help you score cool discounts, but can also lead to loss of privacy</td></tr></tbody></table>Soon, because of Location-Based Social Networks (LSBN), the importance of settings won't be restricted to restaurants alone. LBSNs are either passive (like google.com/latitude) doing little other than helping you find your way around a city, or tracking a friend's location on a map; or active, with the potential to change your life, not all for the better. Active LBSNs currently work by rewarding users. Call it the Happy Meal Effect. In India, a negligible smartphone market and poor mobile connectivity currently stand in the way of players like Gowalla (.com) or Foursquare making as big a noise as say Facebook. Privacy is another huge concern, but that's grist for a whole other column. Smart marketing departments at some US companies have realised that if Foursquare can nominate users as 'Mayors', they can start offering discounts to these Mayors and boost sales in the process. The possibility of massive engagement by brands soon using LBSNs in India is huge. Blue Frog in Mumbai already has a Foursquare Day Special, but everyone from retail chains to popular restaurants may soon exploit this potential audience. Imagine, for instance, a mall deciding to offer large numbers of teenagers in the vicinity discounts for an hour. Or, college students armed with smartphones playing tour guides to tourists while watching television at home. Twitter, having realised early on why location data makes for a more powerful tool, enabled Geotagged tweets a while ago. It then launched 'Places', integrating Foursquare and Gowalla with localised search firm Localeze -- all to, ultimately, provide rich data in and around the simple tweet. The buzz around LBSNs is set to grow. Expect Aamir Khan to use them too, before the launch of his next movie. -- Lindsay Pereira is Editor, MiD DAY Online twitter.com/lindsaypereira

A certain pizza chain in the UK owes Facebook and Foursquare (.com) more than a Thank You note

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