Here’s my location, for your information: The impact of trust, benefits, and social influence on location sharing application use among Indonesian university students

•Social influence strongly influences the use of a location sharing application.•People use a location sharing application for impression management and entertainment.•Competence-based trust in the LSA developer impacts the use of the application.

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.