For years, Facebook has tried to beat the likes of Foursquare and Yelp in the location check-in game. They have utterly failed for the most part when considering how large they are compared to their competitors, so they’re trying to get people to tell all of their Facebook friends where they are at any given time in exchange for free WiFi.
Would you check in on Facebook in exchange for free Wi-Fi at a hotel, restaurant, or retailer? That’s the pitch Facebook has cooked up to hook its social network into companies big and small.
Facebook and Cisco are jointly announcing Wednesday that they’ve partnered to bring the social Wi-Fi option to more businesses after a small but fruitful pilot of the system in around 1,000 small and medium-sized businesses. For the average restaurant diner, airport goer, or superstore shopper, the arrangement should mean they’ll soon find Facebook Wi-Fi at more of the places they visit regularly.