Foursquare Survey: Social Media Check-ins Gaining Popularity

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Posted Feb 06, 2014

Microsoft recently made a large investment in location based app Foursquare. The company plans to integrate Foursquare’s data into its web and mobile platforms in some capacity. But how popular is Foursquare and similar location based apps? And how many use mobile platforms to find information about nearby businesses and other locations?

foursquare

Foursquare Users

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 6% of respondents said they currently use Foursquare. Another 8% said they have used it in the past. 5% said they have not used Foursquare, but they have used other dedicated location based apps like Gowalla. And 82% said they’ve never used dedicated location based apps.

Checking In

But people don’t need to use one of these dedicated location based apps in order to “check in” with their location and gain the other benefits. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram also offer these abilities to go along with their other features and large user bases. 10% of overall respondents said they often check in with their location on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. 17% said they sometimes check in on social media sites. 18% said they rarely check in. and 55% have never used their location to check in on a social media site.

Mobile Searching

But Microsoft’s new partnership with Foursquare won’t necessarily rely on people to use the platform. It could simply use some of its data about local businesses. In general, 15% of respondents said they often use mobile devices to search for information about nearby businesses or other locations. 28% said they sometimes search for info on local businesses. 14% said they rarely search for local businesses on mobile devices. 21% said they never search for this type of info. And 24% don’t have a mobile device with search capabilities. Of those who have used mobile devices to search for local businesses, 10% said they always search using their exact location. 24% said they use their exact location most of the time. 26% use it about half the time. 26% said they rarely search for nearby businesses using their exact location. And 14% never do.You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: Check in to Foursquare or Gowalla with a live Bambuser broadcast from FlickrWhat do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on February 5 via AYTM’s online survey panel.

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