Location-based mobile services are beginning to gain ground in China, providing new opportunities for marketers to reach consumers.

The rise of Foursquare, Gowalla and Shopkick has been a defining characteristic of the US marketing landscape this year.

Parallel platforms are now forging ahead in China, with around 30 services in operation.

Shanda Interactive, China's biggest internet gaming group, has quickly tapped into this channel, adapting an existing travel website, which it rebranded as Qieke.

"Shanda has over 100m active users, most of them gamers, but they are also common people who hang out and have fun in real life," Song Zheng, Qieke's chief executive, told the Wall Street Journal.

"Users are out there, and what we need to do is to connect them."

Approximately 1m people access Quike, but the number of regular participants is nearer 100,000, according to Shanda.

More than 100 brand owners, such as the IT manufacturer Lenovo, have partnered with Qieke thus far.

Coffee house giant Starbucks is also running a promotion giving customers checking in to selected branches at a specified time a free L'Oréal gift bag.

Low-cost hotel chain 7 Days rewards individuals visiting certain sites with toiletries, alongside adding them to a prize draw to win a one-night stay.

Rival service Jiepang, boasting 250,000 members, and has forged links with Renren, a prominent social network, and Sina Weibo, broadly equivalent to  Twitter.

"We're hoping that Jiepang will become an internet tool that everyone uses," David Liu, Jiepang's founder, said.

"The ultimate user desire is to share with friends. That's the same in the US and China."

Given major online corporations may soon enter this space - a list set to include Netease and Baidu - Jiepang must exploit a first-mover advantage.

"We do our best to serve the current users and grow with them," said Liu.

The fledgling firm has sought to achieve this objective through enabling consumers to receive discounts by making collective purchases from 1,000 group shopping websites.

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