To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of the check-in may be greatly exaggerated. An argument that 2011 would be the demise of the check-in was put forward by Mark Watkins, the CEO of Goby in a post here last month. He contended that while some of the check-in services were seeing impressive growth in terms of the number of users, that the per user check-in rate was actually on the decline. Why bother checking in, he asked, contending that the only motivation to do so would be badges or self-branding.
Alex Iskold, the CEO and founder of the social entertainment network GetGlue says he read that story and the ensuing debate with interest – not just because GetGlue users do, indeed, check-in to the site. But because April was poised to be the biggest month for check-ins in the history of the company.
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There were over 4 million check-ins on GetGlue during April, up 55% over March. Furthermore, the growth in check-ins is accelerating on the site.
To be sure, GetGlue has offered a number of new features to encourage the check-in process: an improved mobile app, badges and so on. But Iskold argues that in the case of social entertainment, the check-in may in fact be one of the most important gestures that users can make. People have always socialized around TV, movies, and music, and by checking in to entertainment via GetGlue, they can open up conversations with others who are watching and others who are fans of particular shows.
That “virtual water cooler” effect is no doubt spurring on the check-ins and the conversations on GetGlue, something that goes beyond just the site itself. During primetime, for example, between 3% and 20% of tweets about TV shows come from GetGlue.
So the demise of the check-in may not be so imminent after all. In fact, in the case of GetGlue, it appears as though it’s accelerating.
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