Mobile usage and reliance is increasing faster and faster every day. Concordantly, the growth and development of mobile apps is exponential in its current state. Looking closer still, one of the fastest growing and most dominant sector of the mobile app arena is geolocation based apps. Those are apps that are designed around knowing you exact location and what is around your immediate vicinity. The geolocation based app that started it all was Foursquare. Foursquare aloud users to automatically “check-in” to restaurants and stores they arrived at and would share this friends through the use of social networks. Now to generate revenues, Foursquare is incorporating ads into the app. This is different than usual ads because now they can be targeted specifically based on stores and shops that you happen to be walking or driving by at that moment. Imagine the benefits small business owners could have if they could send coupons and ads automatically to anyone passing by their business. Mashable continues, “Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr have all gotten into the “Promoted” game — launching advertising products called “Promoted Tweets” and “Highlighted Posts” that offer businesses additional exposure for their content. On Wednesday, Foursquare is joining them with the launch of “Promoted Updates,” its first paid product offering for merchants.

Last week, Foursquare began allowing business owners to send local updates — say, their specials for the day, or a picture of their new outdoor seating area — to their “best customers” when they’re nearby. “Best customers” are those who check in frequently, and possibly have “Liked” the venue on Foursquare. Now, businesses can aim those updates at users who aren’t their best customers, but could be. The ads are designed to target users whose friends frequently stop by, who have added that venue to one of their Foursquare lists, or who are often visiting similar venues in that neighborhood. These ads aren’t intrusive: They’re confined entirely to the “Explore” tab…”