Getting Mainstream Users To Check In

With Facebook joining the bandwagon of location-based services, it may seem that these networks are taking off and heavily used by people. But the reality is quite different, as the New York Times finds out. According to Forrester Research, only 4 percent of Americans have ever tried any of the location-based services and only 1 percent use them on a weekly basis.  To entice more people into using their services, companies have initiated several added benefits such as reward coupons for users who “check-in” using their apps.

The Times reports:

Sharing location becomes a simple cost-benefit analysis for most people, said Matt Galligan, chief executive of SimpleGeo, which sells location technology to companies building apps. “There has to be an incentive for giving away very specific information, like coupons or points.”

Shopkick, which became available this month, offers coupons to people when they walk into stores like Best Buy and Macy’s. The application allows users to share their location just with the store and not with other people, and is making inroads with a broader demographic.

Elizabeth Aley, 38, a volunteer in Nixa, Mo., says she is “kind of addicted” to Shopkick. She uses it when she goes to Wal-Mart, Target and the Price Cutter grocery store, to rack up points for entering the stores and to get coupons that she has exchanged for Tide laundry detergent and a Swiffer.

Ms. Aley has chosen to use the app to also reveal her location to her Facebook friends and Twitter followers. The rewards make using the app worthwhile, she said, and the privacy trade-off “really never crossed my mind.”

NY Times: “Technology Aside, Most People Still Decline to Be Located”