Foursquare has gone from a social media app that let users broadcast their favorite bars or restaurants online by "checking-in," to a company that provides location-based data to some of the biggest retail names in the world: Apple, Microsoft and Samsung to name a few.

Recently, the company signed a partnership with Chinese online travel booking service Ctrip. Now, travelers booking their trips outside China with Ctrip can get recommendations on attractions to visit, restaurants to eat at and general city guides — all based on Foursquare data.

"That's a typical partnership for us with Chinese companies," Jeff Glueck, CEO of Foursquare, told CNBC.

"We do the same for Tencent, but Ctrip is obviously a giant player in Chinese travel and we're excited to bring them onto the Foursquare global location platform," he added.

In Asia Pacific, Foursquare has partnerships with brands like Tencent's WeChat and QQ, Samsung, LG, Singapore-based Carousell and more.

In just nine years since the company was created, Foursquare has amassed billions of check-in data in about 105 million places across some 160 countries. Currently, it has two consumer-facing applications and it also provides commercial services to enterprises.