Foursquare hits a billion checkins

Foursquare today announced that they registered their billionth checkin last week. For a two-and-a-half year old startup, that’s a hell of a lot of checkins.

They apparently decided to skip the whole balloons and confetti thing for the billionth checkin, but they did release a video to mark the occasion. Created by designer Matt Healy, it shows a week’s worth of foursquare checkins all over the globe.

For data nerds like me, the video is absolutely mesmerizing. It’s interesting to see how the number of checkins across different categories ebbs and flows throughout the day, and even more interestingly, how those flows differ by continent. Food venues spike at different times of the day, representing the vast cultural differences around the world.

One consistent source of checkins across all the continents is the home/work/office category. People simply love to check in at their homes and offices (showing the importance of foursquare’s new privacy policy for homes).

Give the video a watch (or ten) and let us know what you think in the comments.