Facebook is said to be doing due diligence on the a potential deal with Loopt, a mobile social location service, according to Techcrunch.
Both the parties have not confirmed on this. Loopt is said to have refused to comment on this subject, while Facebook spokesperson is reported to have said: “As a practical matter, we don’t comment on rumor and speculation.”
It is evident that the potential deal is in its early stages, but we can bet that Facebook is at the least very interested in acquiring Loopt, or perhaps a location-based service like it.
Till date Facebook have sat on the sidelines and ignored location features and the ever-increasing popularity of checking-in at locations via mobile devices. This hesitation maybe due to the privacy concerns around disclosing location information.
Location-aware services are immensely popular and has become a social trend almost in parallel to the popularity of social networking. So far, startups like Loopt, Foursquare, Gowalla, aka-aki and hundreds of little-known players are dominating this field. Recently launched Google Buzz also allows check-ins of locations via a mobile device.
With mobile location-based services expected to generate almost $13 billion by 2014, according to Juniper Research, and the pace at which its popularity is rising and Facebook, with a user base of over 100 million mobile users, must should definitely want their share of the pie. Once can also suggest the move as a catch-up game with Google.
However, Facebook’s presence in this area will have a huge impact on the social location service space and on it’s users privacy concerns.
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