As mobile phones have become nearly ubiquitous, mobile phone applications are also becoming almost indispensable. Applications that enable people to share location information are becoming increasingly popular. What remains unknown, however, are the factors that influence the use of a location sharing application (LSA). A paper-based survey was implemented with 655 students of six universities in Yogyakarta, Indonesia to test the hypotheses proposed for the study. Results of hierarchical regression analysis reveal that students’ use of a specific LSA could be attributed to the two types of benefits of using the app (impression management and entertainment) and to competence-based trust in LSA and to their trust in their LSA network members. Furthermore, the impact of social influence on LSA use is also statistically significant.
Mobile phone devices are increasingly used in Indonesia. With approximately 240 million inhabitants, Indonesia has 220 million mobile subscribers – a 92% mobile penetration (Rao, 2012). Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS, 2012) also reported that Indonesians are increasingly accessing the Internet through private devices such as mobile phones and portable computers rather than in Internet cafés. Young people are found to be dominating the mobile devices’ user population in Southeast Asia and in Indonesia, in particular. These technology savvy users, according to Rao (2012), primarily used their mobile devices to access the Internet for various types of information while they are on the go.
Due to the high rate of mobile device use in Indonesia, the government has been inviting mobile vendors to expand their businesses in the country (Ningsih, 2013). Local Indonesian developers and entrepreneurs regard Indonesia as a solid base for the development of mobile devices alongside mobile applications (Frost, 2012).
Various types of mobile applications are offered in the mobile applications market. One well-known type of mobile application is the Social Networking Site (SNS) applications (ComScore, 2013). The growth of SNSs, in general, has pushed enterprises to develop SNS applications that are accessible through mobile devices. These applications enable users to share users’ current location, known as location information, through a global positioning system (GPS) and geo-tagging functions.
Likewise, stand-alone Location Sharing Applications (LSA) are also available, with Foursquare being the most popular example. LSAs, also referred to as Location Based Social Networks (LBSN), function not only as information sharing tools but also as sources of location- or place-related information. Effendi (2013) reported that young Indonesians are increasingly using LSAs as a new way to enhance interactions with friends and family. Foursquare, for instance, is used by approximately 312,000 Indonesian users (We Are Social, 2012), which is the highest number of users in Southeast Asia (Woods, 2011).
Despite the benefits of using LSA, however, there are also reasons for concern related to its use. It has been reported that through various applications, mobile devices can collect users’ location information and identity, in order to understand usage patterns of users, and this happens occasionally without users’ consent (Wetherall et al., 2011). Location information can be useful for marketing and promotion purposes such as for location-based advertising, which is predicted to be a growing business in the future with people increasingly accessing information through their mobile device (Olenski, 2013). Such advertising shows promotions to users based on their current location or expected location (Tsang, Ho, & Liang, 2004). The combination of location information with other data, such as those from SNS, allows enterprises to establish a profound targeted advertising (Bellavista et al., 2008 and Olenski, 2013).
LSA use, hence, can be a double-edged sword, since its benefits can be countered by privacy concerns. As an emerging technology, studies into the factors influencing LSA use are still relatively minimal. Published qualitative studies into the mechanisms behind the use of LSA and the disclosure of location information have primarily focused on the impact of LSA use benefits such as social interaction and impression management (Patil et al., 2012a and Patil et al., 2012b). Furthermore, a more recent study has also investigated the relationship between personality traits and Foursquare use – with conscientiousness strongly correlating with the use of the application (Chorley, Whitaker, & Allen, 2015). What remains unknown, however, is the impact of factors that could be influenced by the LSA provider (benefits, trust, and social influence) on people’s LSA use.
The current study, hence, aims at addressing the research question ‘To what extent do benefits, trust, and social influence positively affect the use of LSA among university students in Indonesia?’. The research question was answered and its accompanying hypothesis tested using data collected through a large-scale survey with 655 students from six universities in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
2. Theoretical framework
The Technology Acceptance Model has been one of the dominant theories employed to explain why people opt to use or to continue using a certain product or technology. TAM proposes that people would not hesitate to adopt a product if it is easy to use and is useful (Davis, 1989). However, the use of a certain product may have unwanted consequences too. The risks associated with the use of a specific technology increases the salience of trust as a predictor of technology adoption, as trust, according to Lewis and Weigert (1985), would be irrelevant without risk.
Furthermore, a new technology such as LSA would certainly draw the following of a strong user base, hence the impact of social influence on novel product adoption and use could not be underestimated. A combination of propositions from various theoretical frameworks resulted in a model that predicts the factors influencing LSA use among Indonesian university students.
