Facebook Places launches in the UK

Facebook Places, the social network’s much-anticipated location-based offering, has rolled out in the UK.

Facebook Places lets people check-in at real-life locations, similar to existing mobile services Foursquare and Gowalla.

The US launch last month showed how brands could create their own ’Place’, such as a coffee shop on Oxford Street, to increase engagement with Facebook users.

At the time of launch Facebook did not allow any paid ads with Places, but the company did say additional opportunities would come through the development of any apps using the Facebook API.

Brands will either be able to create their own tools that integrate location functionality or work with third-party applications.

Speaking to new media age last month Neil Kleiner, head of social media at Havas Media Group, said location services are predominately used by early adopters at the moment.

“In the UK, Facebook has 26m active users and 10m of them only access it though their mobiles. There are no barriers to adoption because users don’t have to get their heads around being a ’mayor’ like on Foursquare, for example,” he said.

Rival location-based services Foursquare, Gowalla and Yelp are all using Facebook’s API to develop products that integrate with Places.

This story first appeared on newmediaage.co.uk

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