Consumer Preferences toward Location-Based Apps - Survey Report

In this digital era, smartphones and tablets are inseparable from human’s life. Many kinds of applications and services can be used through to enhance people’s social lives. One of them is called the location-based apps. It’s an application served as an information service and has a number of uses in social networking today as an entertainment service. Location-based apps are accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network, and it particularly uses information on the geographical position of the mobile device. With so many location-based apps nowadays, Jakpat has conducted a survey to see consumer preferences toward it. The respondents are Indonesian citizens, as a developing country with high rate of internet penetration (29% of the population, with accessing social media being the highest activity[1]), particularly the youth, as the age class majority of smartphone users. This survey involved 250 respondents aged 16-30 year-old living across the country in particular 10 big cities, including Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Medan, Makassar, Denpasar, Palembang, and Balikpapan, with approximately 50:50 ratio between male and female respondents.

Results from the survey reveal that 7 out of 10 people (74%) are feeling comfortable to share their location through the location-based apps. However, only 5 out of 10 people (55%) admit that they feel happy after sharing their location information. Following that, there are five most popular location-based apps among Indonesian youngsters, as we can see in the infographic below. Furthermore, all Google’s location-based apps are more popular with men than women (45% VS 35%), while more women than men prefer using Instagram (80% VS 78%), Facebook (80% VS 76%), and Path (66% VS 53%).

Facebook is the most popular location-based apps among the age group between 26-30 year-old (91%), while among the younger age group, Instagram is the most popular one with 81% among 20-25 year-old and 83% among 16-19 year-old. So, what is the reason behind respondents’ decision to install location-based apps? Nearly half of them (49%) stated that they’ve already known how the location-based apps can give some benefits for them, therefore they installed the apps for its advantages. Meanwhile, others admit that they downloaded the apps just for fun and to keep them occupied during their spare time (30%), and also, to follow the trend, since people around them are also installing the apps (21%). Basically, people were motivated to install the apps for their own good and satisfaction.

From those installing location-based apps because of its advantages, there were found that more men than women were rooting for this reason (52% VS 46%). On the other hand, more women than men were found installing location-based apps in order to spend their leisure time (32% VS 28%) and to keep it up with the current trends (22% VS 20%). Henceforth, after installing the apps, what do they use it for? Most of people use the apps for finding certain places or events nearby their current location (71%) and for navigation uses (61%), while nearly half people use it for finding their friends nearby (43%). Less popular usages of location-based apps are for getting special deal or offer (27%) and for checking public transportation (26%).

With their reasonable choices to install location-based apps and several advantageous usages, it’s found that 7 out of 10 people (75%) admit that they don’t have concern regarding on who they would trust the most and the least with their location information. It’s neither the government, applications provider, nor the network operators. However, it’s also revealed that more than half people (60%) still have concerns regarding on the activity of sharing their location details through the apps. What are those concerns? We can find it on the infographic below.

When asked about what concerns they have regarding on sharing their location information via location-based apps, most of them said that it’s regarding on security (75%) and privacy (73%) issues. Other things that bother them in sharing their location details are whether the information could be shared without permission (32%), and also those spams and unwanted advertisements they could frequently received (29%). Women are more likely than men to feel insecure about their security (80% VS 70%) and privacy (79% VS 68%) issues. On the other hand, men are more likely than women to be bothered by spam and unwanted advertisement (35% VS 23%).

This survey revealed that there are three most satisfying location-based apps according to Indonesians: Instagram (85%), Facebook (78%), and Path (68%). Observing that this is compatible with previous finding about the most popular location-based app used by respondents, which Instagram, Facebook, and Path are also the top three, it can be concluded that those location-based apps are indeed Indonesians’ favorite. Instagram, Facebook, and Path are kind of apps which not only serve geographical information services, but also give room for its users to keep updated with their social lives through social networking activities. Therefore, Indonesian youths preferences toward location-based apps tend to favor those applications which have capability to enhance their social lives through mobile phones.

[1] See more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/10/internet-users-indonesia-reach-73-million.html#sthash.sSjStWgw.dpuf

For more detail you can download XLS report at the button below. JAKPAT report consists of 3 parts which are 1) Respondent Profile, 2) Crosstabulation for each question and 3) Raw Data. Respondent profile shows you demographic profiles ( gender,age range, location by province, and monthly spending). Cross tabulation enables you to define different demographic segment preference on each answer.