Foursquare announced today it will charge businesses a fee of $10 to instantly verify their page online. In the past, restaurants, bars, and shops have had to mail in their application and wait for approval. The process typically took weeks to complete.
While the development won't likely create a huge windfall of revenue for New York-based Foursquare, it should entice merchants that want to get started running specials right away. They will also be able to immediately use the platform's analytics dashboard by paying the rather small fee.
Anything the geo-social company does to create more business- and user-level scale should probably be seen as a positive. Two weeks ago, Foursquare announced it had cleared the 20 million user threshold, while attracting 750,000 busineses to its platform.

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Christopher Heine was a senior writer for ClickZ through June 2012. He covered social media, sports/entertainment marketing, retail, and more. Heine's work has also appeared via Mashable, Brandweek, DM News, MarketingSherpa, and other tech- and ad-centric publications. USA Today, Bloomberg Radio, and The Los Angeles Times have cited him as an expert journalist.
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