How Prevalent are Location Based Services?

There’s a lot of hype around location based services but how many people are actually using them? A new report by Pew Internet is out and now we have the answers.

Only 4% of online adults use location based services, such as Foursquare or Gowalla. On any given day, 1% of internet users are using these services.

Interestingly enough, from May 2010, the usage numbers haven’t changed significantly. In May 2010, 5% of adult internet users said they had used such a site.

With Facebook Deals, I imaging these numbers will grow quickly as consumers start to benefit from checking in. As companies start to offer special deals and freebies, there will finally be a reason for consumers to use the service. Prior, there were few monetary benefits. On Foursquare, for example, most people checked in in an effort to become ‘Mayor,’ the person with the most check-ins. While there were some deals offered, they were few and far between.

Other key findings from the report:

• 7% the adults who go online with their mobile phone use a location-based service.
• 8% of online adults ages 18-29 use location-based services, significantly more than online adults in any other age group.
• 10% of online Hispanics use these services – significantly more than online whites (3%) or online blacks (5%).
• 6% of online men use a location-based service such as Foursquare or Gowalla, compared with 3%  of online women.