Microsoft has invested $ 15 million in Foursquare in exchange for using its data

Microsoft has invested 15 million dollars in Foursquare and agreed with a startup on a strategic partnership, reports The Wall Street Journal. As part of the contract, Microsoft received the right to use Foursquare data in its services, such as Windows Phone and Bing.

With this deal, Microsoft becomes the largest partner of Foursquare, but the startup notes that the agreement is not exclusive and does not affect partnerships with other companies. In December, Foursquare had already closed a round of investment of 35 million, which made it possible to estimate the company at about 650 million.

Foursquare has information on over 60 million restaurants, stores, and other places. Most of this information is added by 45 million users of the application, who mark their location in it and get tips and discounts.
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All this data can help Microsoft show smarter search results or, for example, help Windows Phone users to find out about new places when they are in their immediate vicinity.

It is expected that Foursquare will show from 15 to 20 million dollars in revenue this year - a noticeable increase from 2 million in 2012. In December, the company announced it was receiving investments from the DFJ Growth and the Capital Group's Smallcap World Fund.

The partnership between Microsoft and Foursquare makes sense for both parties, but for Microsoft it is clearly a strategic step to strengthen its position in the mobile market by improving its maps and geolocation-based search.