Gowalla thinks money with launch of new check-in features

Popular mobile check-in application Gowalla today announced it has launched several new features — all helping the company to make money from the service. The company’s new features include City Pages, Verified Businesses and a Stamp Calendar.

Gowalla is now joining the competition, like Foursquare, by allowing businesses to claim and verify their locations. Once complete, businesses can create a custom welcome message to be delivered upon check in and those individuals can then receive what the company calls a “stamp” — a business specific graphic that the user can show off on their profile. Starting in Austin, New York City and San Francisco, verified businesses can now buy a stamp for their customers and also get a featured listing.

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The feature listing will appear on another new Gowalla feature — City Pages. These pages are a compilation of the most checked-in locations as well as “highlights” – the ability for users to mark locations with specific tags like “Best Cup of Coffee” or “Best Live Music.” When a business buys a stamp, it will get a featured listing its City Page as well as on Gowalla mobile applications on iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

Each City Page will also have what the company is calling a “stamp calendar,” which can spotlight a specific businesses custom stamp each day of the month. Gowalla has an interesting way of selling each day of the month. Starting January 1, 2011, the first day of the month will cost $5 and increase $5 for each day thereafter.

Looking at Gowalla’s biggest competition, Foursquare doesn’t seem to be focused on revenue yet, according to a recent TechCrunch article. The company does allow businesses to claim locations and provide mayor rewards – only given to those who check-in to a location the most. It would appear Foursquare doesn’t want to ask businesses to pay just yet, probably because they want more businesses to verify locations and give users incentives to check-in more often.