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How does Facebook Places stack up against Foursquare ? It's a question many have wondered since the world's largest social network jumped into the check-in game

"What our clients are struggling with is: How big a deal are social media and location-based services, and how much of it is just sound and fury?" says a senior VP of Applied Predictive Technologies, which runs data analytics for Starbucks and Subway. "You've got your Groupon and Living Social , and your Foursquare and Facebook Places," says Jonathan Marek. "What our clients are struggling with is: How big a deal are social media and location-based services, and how much of it is just sound and fury?" That's the question on the mind of most every marketer and retailer--and Marek might finally have an answer

The Boston startup plans to disrupt Groupon and Foursquare by making a game that combines the genius of both, and imagines how the benefits of games can extend beyond business. Thousands of SXSW -goers packed like dominoes onto the escalators of the Austin Convention Center on Saturday, waiting to hear Seth Priebatsch, the 22-year-old founder and "chief ninja" of Scvngr , proclaim the future of location-based apps