On the day Facebook finally filed for its IPO, an analyst signalled that Google+ is slowly creeping up on the number one social network.
Google+ watcher Paul Allen estimated in a blog post that the social network has reached 100m users, an increase of 10m since Google last announced membership figures just two weeks ago.
This means Google+ has been adding users at a rate of 750,000 per day.
Allen, who has been accurate with his previous estimates, works out the statistics by running analysis on the number of users with hundreds of different surnames.
He believes it will reach at least 400m users by the end of 2012.
“Google has many dials and levers to use this year to increase signups and usage, including its Android 4.0 rollout.”
In a previous post Allen said that increased usage of Chrome and YouTube will also contribute to raising the profile and user figures for Google+.
Google’s decision to open up the network to teenagers and the launch of Search Plus Your World, the much-publicised integration of Google+ into search results, will also help boost its figures.
It’s getting to the stage where very few people will be unaware of Google+, but convincing them to sign up and use it on a regular basis is a different challenge.
Anecdotally, of the people I know who have signed up for Google+ most did it out of curiosity and have since logged on rarely, if ever.
So while the number of accounts is impressive and growing, statistics around engagement and time spent on the site are more important when analysing the relative strength of Google+ compared to Facebook – which, as we should all know by now, has more than 800m active users.
Reader comments (14)
10:39AM on 2nd February 2012
Still no engagement or active usage data, when or will Google ever release these stats?
Head of community at TMW
11:08AM on 2nd February 2012
We can but hope, but it's unlikely and that part of G+ largely remains a bit of a guessing game.
11:14AM on 2nd February 2012
I feel Google's aggressiveness in 'forcing' people to use the social network may backfire. On it's own, Google plus doesn't offer anything unique to it's users. I personally do like Google plus since most of my industry peers are on it and enjoy the discussions. But I don't really see my mom or cousin making the move to Google plus any time soon.
11:34AM on 2nd February 2012
I think it's definitely about the people who are forced into this network. I occasionally use the site, but used in more in a previous work-role. I see it being more useful for B2B communities than B2C. As a consumer it feels like we don't have control over it like we do with Facebook, which is a much more closed community.
SEO Consultant at RBS Insurance
11:58AM on 2nd February 2012
I find this strange. Clearly what has happened is since Google+ launched their business pages you have had everyone and his dog sign up blindly thinking that if they create a Google+ page for their business it may help them in the SERPs The data we really need is how many status updates are done per day, how many times does the average user login. The only people I know who use it are businesses, none of my friends do, most of them have not even heard of it still.
12:37PM on 2nd February 2012
I have several Google accounts, and use them from PC or mobile... I actually got tricked to signing in to G+ through mobile on 2 accounts, when signing in to Picasa it started asking a couple of questions and then I was signed up!
I eventually freely signed up on my main google account and also curious to see some active users data. For the other 2 forced account, they might manage to force me signing in once in a while, but how fare will they go?
Head of Digital Marketing at Nokia
12:38PM on 2nd February 2012
I have several Google accounts, and use them from PC or mobile... I actually got tricked to signing in to G+ through mobile on 2 accounts, when signing in to Picasa it started asking a couple of questions and then I was signed up!
I eventually freely signed up on my main google account and also curious to see some active users data. For the other 2 forced account, they might manage to force me signing in once in a while, but how fare will they go?
2:46PM on 2nd February 2012
400 million may be a bit of a stretch, but I'm pretty confident that Google is going to merge their local Places listings into Google + business pages before too long. This would be a very good thing, for many reasons.
The fact that they're forcing google + signup with any new gmail account will certainly inflate their user numbers, and they can (to some extent) manipulate the engagement stats by getting people to click through to google + posts by incorporating those posts in the SERPs with their new 'search your world' feature.
I'm betting it really starts to blow up in activity by mid summer.
3:17PM on 2nd February 2012
The number of members isn't all that important. What really matters is if these members are actively using Google+. The fact that these numbers aren't as publicized makes it seem like the majority aren't.
3:49PM on 2nd February 2012
Does Google give insights on the volume per country?
ceo at AdFiliate bv
3:49PM on 2nd February 2012
Does Google give insights on the volume per country?
Head of community at TMW
4:39PM on 2nd February 2012
@Nick Couldn't agree more. As I said above - will we ever see active user stats from the big G?
@Patrick Paul is the best person to ask about this specific data, since he's a Google watcher and these are his projections. His G+ profile link is in the post above.
6:26PM on 2nd February 2012
@Vikki — I love G+ Think there are creative possibilities galore using Hangouts and other features. Have you guys done any reports on how journalists are using it?
7:39PM on 2nd February 2012
750,000 users per day looks suspiciously like the number of Android mobile divides sold per day. Maybe Facebook has an entrenched competitor in the Mobil, Social, walk in and buy it market.
Log in to post a comment