I've been thinking about this type of app a lot and i think it's a great idea and it won't be the last of these type of platforms. My prediction is there will be hundreds of micro chat sites in the next few years and there will be thousands of 'foursquares' similar to the way there are many, many "social networks" that aren't threatened by facebook.<p>1. Chat apps will appear for major cities that may or may not feed into a larger community. For instance, why doesn't someone launch 100 of these apps - Miami South Beach, Atlantic City, Vegas Strip, etc. I click it, i'm chatting with people I know are in Vegas and doing the same things... drinking and losing money, of course.<p>2. Reward systems will develop that are much more elaborate than a free beer for mayor. Pseudo-panzi-schemes with downlines, etc but tied to real financial rewards, to incentivize people to chat. For instance, you give people a share of ad revenue in proportion to how early they sign up in an area and how often they're online. Or prizes, or points that they can spend... Like groupon on top of chat?<p>3. Normal people will start to think of location based chat. Hashtags are a poor tech geek's way of filtering by location... if i'm tweeting to friends at a conference i wish i could <i>prevent</i> my friends who aren't there from receiving those messages. I know they don't care and don't want to be irritated at our elaborate tweeting about where to meet for the best Thai food in north america (which happens to be in Vegas, by the way). <a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/lotus-of-siam-las-vegas" rel="nofollow">http://www.yelp.com/biz/lotus-of-siam-las-vegas</a>