Dec
07
Location App Growth Is Slow
Wed Dec, 2011 by Derek Mehraban
Foursquare claims to have 15 million users and half of them are from outside of the US. That is a large number of users, but new data by Forrester Research casts this number in a pessimistic light. From 2010 to 2011 the number of adults aware of location based apps like Foursquare grew from 16% to 30%. Despite that growth in awareness actual usage only grew from 4% to 5% within the same time period.
People are learning about the apps, but are not using them. Part of the problem may not necessarily be a failure to recruit new users but an inability to keep users. The data shows early adopters – usually higher income men – are tiring of the genre and using them less and less. However, the number of women using the services is growing.
The digital agency needs to keep a sober assessment of the value of these apps. While there is recruitment and increasing awareness of them, the number of people these apps reach may be plateauing. The shifting demographics of the users are also important to keep in mind. Increasingly the digital agency needs to implement these apps as a strategy for attracting women consumers where it used to be the male consumer that was most responsive to the badges offered up by Foursquare and similar apps.
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