Foursquare appoints new regional head for SEA, Hong Kong

• Based in Singapore to further expansion of Foursquare in SEA
• Appointment follows strategic moves, including recent rebranding

LOCATION technology platform Foursquare has announced the appointment of Tim Castle (pic, left) as its regional head for Southeast Asia (SEA) and Hong Kong, effective January.

Based in Singapore, Castle will closely work with brands, agencies and advertisers in this region to further the expansion of Foursquare across Southeast Asia (SEA).

Castle’s career has spanned multiple regional hubs, including the UK and Australia, where he led new business initiatives at Group M, AOL (later Verizon Media), and most recently at Playground XYZ, where he was responsible for expanding the business’s mobile rich media and measurement solution into new markets across Asia.

“Location services are critical to any enterprise’s technology stack. Foursquare has continued to push the boundaries of what’s possible with location technology with their full range of capabilities to help businesses scale, and create better customer experiences and business outcomes,” said Castle.

“I look forward to working closely with businesses across the region, keen to explore the possibilities with Foursquare’s offerings.”

Aditi Kohli, managing director of Foursquare Asia-Pacific, said: “Castle's appointment marks an exciting new step for Foursquare in the region. As we continue to gain momentum with our innovative enterprise products and proprietary location technology and data, we will deeply benefit from his years of expertise in driving new business growth across multiple markets.”

Castle’s appointment in Asia follows Foursquare’s recent rebrand last year, which sees a new, clean logo that reflects more of the company’s current identity as a technology platform that ensures top consumer apps like Spotify and AirBnB have accurate and smooth-running location services.

Foursquare first gained fame as an app that allowed people to share their location with friends, but have pivoted in recent years to providing location data and software to businesses including marketers and ad agencies.

The last two years have seen a series of strategic moves for the company. In 2019, it purchased competitor Placed, while in April 2020, it merged with location data company Factual. The latter move allowed Foursquare to not only improve its ability to gauge the effectiveness of ads by measuring foot traffic but also build its ad-targeting capabilities.

Late last year, its then chief executive officer (CEO) David Shim announced that he would be stepping down, to be replaced by Foursquare board member Gary Little in Jan 1.