About Location Labs
Location Labs is the company behind the Safely suite of services. One of the most important is Safely Locate which includes AT&T FamilyMap, Sprint Family Locator, and T-Mobile FamilyWhere… services that we build and market in partnership with some of the biggest brands in the US. Because these are paid services which enable Mom and Dad to – more... locate their kids via mobile phones, we expect to get questions about the impact of free services (like Google Latitude and Apple Find My Friends) on Safely Locate.
When Google Latitude launched in February 2009, we were optimistic. Our biggest challenge was never taking customers from competing services - it has always been educating Moms and Dads about what a "family locator" service is, and convincing them that they need it. Once they understand it, they love it, but explaining the value in one simple sentence is more difficult than you might imagine. So, if Google is going to do the hard work for us - educating our target customers, parents, to see the value in locating their kids - it gives us a much easier way to explain Safely Locate: "It's like Google Latitude, only better in these ways…".
The Google Latitude launch played out even better than we anticipated. 32 months later, Safely Locate services have increased total paying subscribers by over 682%.
Now, Apple has joined the club with Find My Friends.
Latitude and Find My Friends are like Facebook. These are free, permission-based services targeted towards friends, not family members. Services like Loopt, which have never been competitive with Safely Locate, are far more similar to Latitude and Find My Friends. A service built around "friend locating" puts control in the hands of the individual and targets a completely different demographic than one built around "family locating" which gives control to an authority like a parent.
Family locator services (Safely Locate) are more like ADT Home Security. They are safety-oriented and meant to act as extensions to core services like 911. Safely Locate targets parents who pay the mobile phone bill for their kids, who are required to comply with parents. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone willing to install a free home security system. For the same reasons, parents have a willingness to pay for premium mobile personal security services like Safely Locate.
When Find My Friends gains adoption like Latitude, many of these users will realize the value in personal security "locator" services… and they may want to do more than just locating "on-demand".
Safely Locate supports unique features that are geared towards the needs of families… not of friends trying to find each other at bars. For example, parents can set automated location checks at preset times of day and receive notifications via SMS and e-mail to allow for passive use of the service.
With Safely Locate, you can locate any phone, both smartphones and non-smartphones… and it does not require downloading an application. Also, and perhaps most importantly for some parents, because Location Labs has partners like AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, we can see the billing relationships between Mom and Dad and their kids, so kids don't need to opt-in to share location with their parents. – less – More from ZoomInfo »
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