Over the past one year, location sharing services have proliferated quite a bit – at least in parts of United States and Europe. Services such as FourSquare and Gowalla primarily incentivize people for frequently “checking into” locations by offering them “badges“. While this may appear to be a futile exercise at the outset, companies are also realizing the impact that such services can have on the businesses. For example, some businesses offer discounts to the ‘Mayor‘ on FourSquare – a badge given to the user who has checked in the highest number of times thus incentivizing people to check in more often. Facebook has recently come up with their own location sharing service that is not only good for users to check out friends in the neighborhood, but also helps in finding deals at businesses in the vicinity.

A recent study by Pew has summarized the user demographics of services like FourSquare and Gowalla that you can find below. All numbers are as percentage of internet users in the United States

Gender
Male : 6%
Female : 3%

Race
White : 3%
Black : 5%
Hispanic : 10%

Age
18-29 : 8%
30-49 : 4%
50-64 : 2%
65+ : 1%

Annual Household Income
< $30,000 : 3%
$30,000 – $49,999 : 6%
$50,000-$74,999 : 6%
$75,000+ : 4%

Education
Less than High School : 5%
High School : 3%
Some college : 4%
College + : 5%

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