That girl on the Foursquare logo always looked a little worried, and now we know why: A bigfoot named Facebook just stomped into her territory to steal away her check-in game. At least that's that way it looked yesterday when Facebook stepped decidedly into space previously dominated by the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla, as well as Groupon. 
 
 Facebook’s new Deals feature allows companies to make Groupon-like offers. And Facebook also gave apps the ability to share users’ check-in’s, indicating that the social network wants to become ground zero for location information. Facebook also made clear that the features it introduced yesterday--Single Sign-In, Deals, and the opening up of Location APIs (the pipes that enable the transfer of location information between apps)--are just the first step in a larger mobile strategy that includes location and social elements. 
 
 The threat that Groupon and Foursquare--and their peers in the social-mobile space--now face is part and parcel of the kind of cycle new industries typically pass through: A scrappy startup comes up with a breakthrough idea and launches a product around it. The product, if it succeeds, serves as a proof of concept: It demonstrates that the breakthrough idea wasn’t just some loopy fantasy of a fringe player but actually constitutes a real opportunity. A larger player, previously sitting on the sidelines, sees that success, picks up the idea, and runs with it. And, given its size, the larger player has the potential to steal market share from the smaller player, leaving them struggling for a footing in the field they created. 
 
 Of course being bigger isn’t always a slam dunk (Google has already introduced a places feature in its Maps). And being smaller isn’t necessarily a death sentence. During the dark days when files created on PCs weren’t compatible with files created on Macs, PCs had the advantage. There were just so many more of them. Many customers, particularly businesses, chose simply to use the same system everyone else had, rather than to constantly futz with converting files. And yet, a hardy contingent nevertheless continued to choose Macs. Convenience was less important for those customers. They went with Macs because they valued the other qualities Apple brought to the table. 
 
 Both Groupon and Foursquare think they still have enough going for them to compete in the location and offer spaces. Fast Company asked each for their reactions to Facebook’s news. Both sent back canned statements by email. 
 
 From Groupon: “The new Facebook location-based Deals coexist with Groupon's services the way that Foursquare's partnerships have. It's a different product that serves a different need.” 
 
 From Foursquare: “Many products are now integrating check-ins and tools for local merchants, and we welcome new entrants to the space. As the market leader among location-based services, we feel we're driving innovation in this area by offering a more engaging experience for users and business owners on top of the check-in. We're currently receiving over 1.5 million check-ins per day, and we've added over 1 million users in the past six weeks. We already have tens of thousands of active specials running our platform, and soon we'll be rolling out some new features that will make it even easier for businesses and brands to connect with customers and reward loyalty.” 
 
 Foursquare may be growing, but it still only has between four to five million users. Compare that to the 500 million people on Facebook, 200 million of which use its mobile application. If you’re a national brand trying to connect with customers, which network is likely to deliver the impact you're looking for? And while Groupon might coexist with Facebook, if you’re a harried Mom-and-Pop shop trying to make sense of this brave new social-mobile world, and this Facebook thing that you’re already using lets you create an offer on a single, easy-to-use page, are you really going to take the time to figure out that Groupon thing your nephew told you about? 
 
 On the other hand, Facebook’s implementation of Deals is cruder than similar offerings from Foursquare and Groupon. Which points to the opportunity for the smaller companies. Their long-term sustainability will probably rest on the same thing that enabled the Mac to survive in a PC world: A decision to eschew the urge to be everything to everybody and instead to focus on a customer segment they will always be able to serve better than the big boy. And then to design an offering for that segment that is so vastly superior to the big boy’s that customers in that segment will happily sacrifice the big boy’s reach and convenience for the value brought to the table by the smaller competitor. ||||| When Facebook launched its new Deals feature yesterday, it had already lined up a handful of companies to start beta testing the new service. A look at how two of those companies--Gap and 24-Hour Fitness--are using the feature gives some insight in how Deals might work for other brands. It also gives a preview of what changes your company might need to make in order to take advantage of Facebook's new deal. 
 
 The Gap: Giving Away 10,000 Free Pairs of Jeans 
 
 Tomorrow (yes, Friday November 5), the Gap will give away a pair of jeans to each of the first 10,000 people who use Facebook Places to check in at a Gap store. And everyone else who checks in that day will get 40% off one regularly priced item. 
 
 "For the Gap brand, it's about connecting with our customer wherever they are," said company spokeswoman Olivia Doyne, who attended yesterday's launch. "We know that they use Facebook incessantly. We know they are extremely attached to their smartphone. And so for us, Facebook Places is another way for us to connect with them where they already are." And while 10,000 free jeans adds up to a lot of scratch, Doyne said the Gap believes it will be good for business: "It might bring someone back in our door that we haven't seen in a while, or bring in a whole new customer." 
 
 Doyne said one of the advantages of Facebook Places is that Gap will be able to do more than just offer nation-wide deals; they'll be able to set up localized promotions as well. And while the Gap used Groupon in September to offer coupons entitling customers to $50 worth of merchandise for $25, Groupon can't compete with Facebook in terms of total numbers of users. According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 200 million people use the social network's mobile application. "If you want to capture attention," Doyne said, "it's the place to be." 
 
 To take advantage of tomorrow's deal, customers will have to show a store manager that they checked into the store on Facebook Places. What that means, of course, is that every store manager in the country needs to understand what it means when someone walks up to them on Friday and holds up their phone. Doyne said that didn't present a training challenge to the Gap. "We have a comprehensive communication system in place for communicating with our stores," she said. 
 
 24-Hour Fitness: Using check-ins to raise money for charity 
 
 Facebook's entry into the deals game means businesses can no longer afford to ignore the check-in phenomenon, said Bill Quinn, 24-Hour Fitness's senior vice president of merchandising, who also attended the launch. "Now that Facebook, with 200 million mobile users, and over 500 million [total users], has invested a lot in this space, you know that you have to put more time and energy into figuring out social and mobile." 
 
 Starting yesterday, the company will donate $1 to charity for every member who checks in at a 24-Hour Fitness location. The money will go to KaBOOM!, a non-profit that builds playgrounds around the country, and the promotion will continue up to $50,000. Quinn said it's not just a good way to raise money for charity. It actually helps both 24-Hour Fitness's members and the company itself. "The more our members work out, the more results they're going to get, and the longer they're going to stay with us," he said. 
 
 But incorporating these kinds of deals is not going to be a simple proposition for companies. "It's going to change a lot," Quinn said. "To fulfill the offers. For people to know that they need to check in. Our team members have to know about it, so operations [have to change]. Our pricing management group as well, that comes up with the promotions ... . It impacts everyone." 
 
 And he's also worried about fraud. Yesterday, Zuckerberg dismissed a question raised by a reporter about whether he had concerns that people might misuse check-ins, possibly by creating multiple Facebook accounts. But Quinn said it's a real issue for businesses. "Even though you'd like to think that most of this is going to be legitimate, you're going to have some of those challenges as well, particularly when you're giving out free stuff. 
 
 Quinn said 24-Hour Fitness was diving into Facebook's beta program as a learning exercise to understand how Deals might to impact their company. "We want to be prepared to catch this wave," he said.
– Facebook rolled out some new mobile features yesterday, most notably “Facebook Deals,” a kind of mashup of Foursquare/Gowalla, and Groupon. Users can check in on Facebook Places and get location-sensitive deals from nearby merchants. The Gap, for example, will give out a free pair of jeans to the first 10,000 people who check in at one of its stores tomorrow, Fast Company reports. There will also be tools to allow third-party developers to make apps using Facebook’s location services. The features seem nifty enough, but they could utterly doom the scrappy startups that pioneered these ideas, E.B. Boyd writes. Foursquare, for example, has 4-5 million users to Facebook’s 500 million. “If you’re a national brand trying to connect with customers, which network is likely to deliver the impact you're looking for?” But the little guys are defiant. Foursquare pointed on that it was growing rapidly, and Groupon said Deals was “a different product that serves a different need.” If the smaller sites can focus on quality over quantity, they might make it.