A survey of over 1,500 Myxer users in the US concludes location-based social networking services may not be as popular as they are generally perceived to be. Myxer’s latest BoomBox report on location-based social networks reveals that only 11 per cent of respondents claim to use them, with the leading services not the ones that tend to get the most publicity.

According to the Myxer’s survey, of those consumers who do use location-based services, Booyah Networks’ MyTown is by far the most popular, claiming 56 per cent of those polled, while Loopt came in second place at 12 per cent. Surprisingly, two of the better-known services, Gowalla and Foursquare, trailed far behind MyTown, capturing only 8 per cent each.

The study also revealed some surprising trends as they relate to preferences by those who use these services. 77 per cent of respondents said they check into their network at home, more often than checking in from other venues.
For those who don’t use the services, only 14 per cent claimed privacy as the reason, while 56 per cent cited claimed lack of interest, and 23 per cent said that their phone doesn’t have the ability to use them.

But those who do use them appear to be increasingly active, with 73 per cent citing an increase in their use of these services, and only 27 per cent reporting a decrease. In terms of frequency, 31 per cent said they check in at least once a day, and 26 per cent said they check-in every hour, giving hope to a potential of high-engagement from a marketing perspective.

Additionally, among those polled who do use location-based social networks, 55 per cent said that they have used location-based social networks to attend a venue, and of those who attended venues, music events were most popular at 36 per cent, followed by restaurants (28 per cent) and bars/clubs (19 per cent).

“Our check-in report demonstrates that location-based social networks are growing, but not mainstream yet,” says Myxer CEO, Myk Willis. “Suprisingly Booyah’s MyTown seems to have the early lead in the space and most consumers check-in at home. We believe the success of such services hinges on the passive gaming element which may supersede true online-to-offline event discovery.”

Since 2005, Myxer has catalogued various data points, including age, gender, geographic location, phone model, manufacturer, operator and operating system of each handset that initiated a download from its delivery platform, that now supports more than 7m monthly unique visitors, downloading over 80m content items from Myxer each month. For this month’s report, Myxer used PollDaddy, an online polling and survey tool, which gathered responses from more than 1,500 Myxer users.