ComScore Says Check-In Users Are Young, Employed & Use Android

Digital analytics firm comScore released a study that says that 7.1% of the entire U.S. mobile phone population uses location check-in services and 17.6% of smartphone users checked in during the month of March.

So much for the idea of check-in and location-based games being a fad. ComScore says that 12.6 million smartphone owners used check-in services like Foursquare, Gowalla or Facebook Places. ComScore says that the check-in fervor is driven primarily by open by early adopters, who have “a high propensity for mobile media usage, including accessing retail sites and shopping guides, and displayed other characteristics of early adopters, including a stronger likelihood of owning a tablet device and accessing tech news, when compared to the average smartphone user.”

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“Although still in their relative infancy, location-based mobile check-in services are seeing rather impressive adoption among smartphone users,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile in a press release. “The ability to interact with consumers on this micro-local level through special offers, deals and other incentives provides brands with the real-time opportunity to engage consumers through their mobile device.”

The study finds that check-in users tend to be young with 18 to 24 year olds (26%) and 25 to 34 year olds (32.5%) making up more than half of all users. They tend to be students (23.3%) and have full-time jobs (46.4%).

Android users account for the largest share of check-in users with 36.6% versus iPhone users at 33.7%. BlackBerry came in third at 22% with Palm, Sybmian and Windows all account for less than 5% (see chart). Of total mobile users who check-in (16.7 million), about three out of four do so with a smartphone.

The group shows the classic early adopter warning signs. They access tech news via mobile device (40.3%) and 28.2% own a media tablet, both significantly higher than the average mobile user.

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