Location-based services like Foursquare and Facebook Places were supposed to be the next big thing for consumers and businesses alike. According to a new study by Forester Research however, people are still wary of letting everyone know exactly where they are and what they are doing.
According to the New York Times, over $115 million has been poured into location start-ups since last year, not to mention the money spent by Starbucks, Gap, and other big businesses using these services for marketing purposes. The numbers are in however, and the businesses spending big may just be getting a little worried about now.
As it turns out, only 4% of Americans have tried location-based services, and only 1% are currently using them on a regular weekly basis. Forrester Research have also found that the demographic of users is mostly confined to small groups of young, urban tech-heads. 70% of users are aged between 19 and 35, and 80% are male.
One of the reasons why location-based services have not yet become mainstream may have to do with privacy and safety concerns, although there are some services out there that are attempting to sidestep these concerns. Shopkick, for example, offers coupons and points to people who walk-in to one of their stores, and does not automatically share the location of its customers with anyone else on their network.
These marketing-focused services are likely to play a big role in location-based networking and marketing in the near future, as businesses work out clever ways to get people to visit their stores on a regular basis. Novel ideas like the Foursquare ‘Mayor’ are also likely to be picked up by other networks.
With Facebook Places having just launched this month, the future of location-based networking is very much in the balance. If anyone can bring these kinds of services to the mainstream and integrate them with other social networking technology, then it is Facebook, with its huge and ever growing network of users, who are most likely to succeed.
