Life360 is for family safety, but also for 'connection': CEO

Life360 (LIFX) CEO Chris Hulls joins Yahoo Finance to discuss how the app has transformed beyond its baseline location services.

As a top location-sharing app on the market, Hulls tells Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton that the app is "not just about safety, but a sense of connection." Besides location services, the company is also able to track driving behavior and help families handle emergency situations by providing in-app emergency assistance.

Life360 has additionally expanded to devices, providing its location services for everything from keys to pets. "Our belief is that location is going to be in everything and is very much the early days," Hulls explains. As millennials become parents, mobile devices increasingly play a role in parenting, contributing to Life360's growth.

Following the popularization of Apple's (AAPL) Find My iPhone, Hulls explains that Life360 provides a "richer interface" with more detailed information. He adds that the app is not just for families with teenage kids, as Life360 is ultimately about "staying in touch with the people closest to you."

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl

Video transcript

There is more to location sharing than just seeing what your kids are up to during the day and life.

360 company operates a platform geared toward families allowing its users to not only keep track of their loved ones but also keep track of belongings and access a range of safety services.

Joining us now to discuss the opportunities and beyond for the company life.

6360 co founder and Ceo Chris Halls.

Chris.

Thank you for being here.

Appreciate it.

So talk to me about how you guys um are integrated into devices and, and what demand looks like right now.

Sure.

So we were the first location sharing app on the market and we have the insight that location can be the springboard for so many different family services.

It's not just about safety but that sense of connection.

Where is someone?

How are they driving?

How are they feeling?

And when there is that emergency, what if you need an ambulance?

What if you need help?

Because your kid drank the Tylenol.

We have a whole host of services that fit within our umbrella.

And more recently we've moved into devices.

So pets things cars, keys, uh, stuff that you really care about.

Our belief is that location is gonna be in everything and it, and it is very much the early days as the millennial generation becomes parents, they naturally turn to their devices and that's been driving this huge growth we've had.

And Chris, I'm assuming, you know, if I'm tracking people, I'm assuming that other person that they have to opt in.

Yep, it is 100% opt in.

There's no parent and kid version of the app.

It's all the same, completely peer to peer.

And that was one of the key elements of our platform in the early days was trust you have to be opted in that is not stealth.

Um And life 360 I, I would imagine competes on some levels, although you have a different suite of services with things like find my iphone.

So I'm curious how mu how much of it is deployed on Android devices.

And do you also have some market share on I OS devices?

So, counterintuitively, we actually have higher market share in Android heavy and excuse me, I os heavy regions and a lot of it is because Apple helped popularize location sharing because hey, they're Apple, they normalize something that felt a little bit creepy early on.

But as we grew, people realized, well, if I really want that richer interface, if I have a family, if I have cross platform customers, if I want to know how someone's driving.

If I want to have a interface, a little bit more lively and less utilitarian, you get A I 360.

So we very regularly hear of people who started on find my and moved to I 360 but it's about half of our paying customers are across platform.

And Chris, I'm curious um whether, you know, if you have kids yourself and if so are, are you using the app to stay connected with them?

I have two daughters, six and nine.

So I'm not using the app for them.

Uh but I do use tile devices with them.

And one thing that's a bit counterintuitive is it's not just parents with kids.

We have couples, we have people taking care of their aging parents.

So when you really look at what we're doing, it's about the family organizer.

It's about staying in touch with the people closest to you and it's not just people with teenage kids.

Um And as you know, there's a story in the Wall Street Journal that talked about um potentially more information on a new source of revenue for you guys.

You have, you know, people pay for some of these services that you're talking about, but it sounds like you also are gonna have an ad supported version and that you're gonna give some more information about the ad revenue.

What, what can you tell us about that piece?

Absolutely.

So by dau, we're the 15th biggest app in the country now on I OS according to data dot A I.

So we have this huge treasure cove of real time first party data.

And I think sometimes you can look at data and it just looks like a way to harvest things from your customers.

But we actually think we can give offers that are very compelling.

So imagine you land at a new airport and we can immediately get you an Uber or you go to a new country and we could offer you trip insurance.

Those are things that take advantage of your data in very beneficial ways where we can match our customers with products and services that actually help them.

And that's a very unique type of advertising and we're excited to, to lead into it.

And Chris, you guys are um you trade in Australia, you have an OTC listing here, but I'm I understand you're pursuing potentially a dual listing in the US.

What's the potential timeline on that?

I I can't comment on that, but we did file an S3 prospectus which anyone can take a look at.

Ok. We'll do that and hopefully other people will do we too, Chris.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you for having me.