I read an interesting article from Boston Innovation that perhaps SCVNGR has surpassed 1 million users. If thats true, that’s totally awesome and good boost for Location based apps. Last year brought geo-loco to the forefront, with Facebook Places and Foursquare leading the way. Back in November, 4sq had 7 million users with a (debatable) evaluation of $250 million.
But coming back to SCVNGR (why all caps?) the app is very addictive. It’s different than Foursquare (and also Gowalla) because of better game play. It’s almost like virtual team orienteering (what you played at scout camp with a compass and a map.)
There are many different takes on location apps: From Flowd (disclosure: I work with these guys) who want to rule LBS music, to vicinity hookups from Loopt Mix.
One app that caught my eye is from local Ottawa shop Going AFK. They are alpha testing SpyAmI. It combines traditional PC gaming theme with SCVNGR type of outdoor missions. This game has a lot of potential and I’m looking forward to the public launch.