Google+ Is Now Bigger Than Twitter, Only Second to Facebook

[Gahars]

Google+ was Google's attempt to face down Facebook. Launched back in 2011, it was meant to be a competing social media site, one that would take the throne from Mark Zuckerburg. It was surrounded by a lot of hype and speculation (Google+ is like Facebook, minus all the annoyances!)... and then just sort of fizzled.

Needless to say, many were left Google Nonplussed.

However, that's not the end of our story. While the publicity may have died down, it seems that Google+ has been adding users in the shadows.

Around 25% of global internet users are Google+ members. It currently stands at almost 343 active million users. While the number of Twitter users has surged, increasing 40%, the number of users stands at a little under 300 million. This leaves it just about tied with Youtube.

(Rephrased from) phoneArena

(Another shocking tidbit: People are still using MySpace)

Facebook, of course, is still the reigning champion. It sits pretty at a billion users, and even managed to pull in 33% growth. Despite any troubles on Wall Street (or, as the kids call it, the "IP-Oh no"), the social media king doesn't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.

While "active members" is a bit vague, Google+ is still a whole lot more popular than people would have you believe. 343 million users is certainly a respectable amount. I suppose that does it for all the "Google+ is a ghost town" jokes I never got around to making.

And hey, even if they never topple the monolith that is Facebook, I think Google will be okay - they'll always have AR glasses, self-driving cars, and, uh, that search engine thing.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

I never thought Google+ subtracted from Facebook's base.

I really don't hate social networking unlike every other friendless neckbeard here. I do use Facebook rather frequently (not obnoxiously so but I check it multiple times a day) and I don't really see the point in grumping about it. It's a great tool to keep in contact with people.

 

[Veho]

While the publicity may have died down, it seems that Google+ has been adding users in the shadows.

It's kind of hard to not be a user when Google is cramming the feature down your throat on every other service they have. Gmail? "WHY DON'T YOU GOOGLE+?" Youtube? "INCIDENTALLY, THERE'S THIS GOOGLE+ THING WHY NOT TRY IT?" Picasa? "SHARE YOUR PICTURES ON GOOGLE+!" Google? "GOOGLE FASTER WITH CHROME!"

...yeah.

And I think all Gmail users are set as G+ users by default or something. I know it treats me as a G+ user and sends me notifications and people have me in circles or whatever, and I never agreed to nuthin'.

Anywhoo, Big Brother nothing. All hail our googly overlord.

 

[Hells Malice]

To this day I still have no fucking idea what Google+ even is.

 

[The Riolu]

And I remembered when most of us said it was going nowhere...

 

[Satangel]

And I remembered when most of us said it was going nowhere...

It IS going nowhere.
It's just users that have linked their Google account to it somehow, like the post above you explains so well. I really doubt even 10 million people use it on a daily basis.

 

[ThePowerOutage]

And this is exactly why the distinction between 'User' and 'Has an account' needs to be made with social networking sites. IIRC, everybody with an account for any google service is automatically signed up when they log in. This is just number fudging.

As a side note, more people should use G+. Much better than twitter and facebook.

 

[pokefloote]

I signed up for it just to shut it up every time i sign into YouTube or Gmail. It's counting "active" users... How many people happen to browse youtube or check their email daily (and therefore are active in G+) and are now thrown into this statistic of how many people are using google+? Not really fair, when to be "active" on twitter or facebook, you need to actually post.

 

[Taleweaver]

I have two gmail-accounts. It wouldn't surprise me if I'd show up twice on their countings, despite never even have used it.


EDIT: ...outside of the actual mail checking, obviously.

 

[KingVamp]

Ad-block + element hider help + not a google plus user = Happy me.

 

[Hadrian]

I don't use Google+ but apparently I do...which is confusing. I guess it's because I use gmail...once and I use the Play store.

*shrug*

 

[Qtis]

I'm actually quite surprised by this. Most people I know that use all the big three (facebook, twitter, Google+) basically have their apps linked to all three. In other words, post in the app once and all three will show the post. What I'd be more interested in is the actual amount of active users. That would remove quite a bit from the facebook userbase just as well.

As long as most of my friends and organizations I work with (basically Uni/student bodies) use facebook as their main information channel in social media, I'll keep using facebook. If most of my contacts change to one or the other, I'll probably change. I'd imagine Linkedin is the next one instead of G+, since most of my industry/econ contacts use that (studying mechanical engineering and minoring in industrial econ has affected this quite a bit..).

 

[Ethevion]

I don't use Google+ but apparently I do...which is confusing. I guess it's because I use gmail...once and I use the Play store.

*shrug*

I think it is because of Gmail, in which case it shouldn't really count.

 

[chavosaur]

Facebook is perfect for keeping up with friends and family.
And twitter is awesome for keeping up with game developers, t.v shows, and homebrew developers.
But I don't think I've ever touched google +...

 

[Aeter]

It's kind of hard to not be a user when Google is cramming the feature down your throat on every other service they have. Gmail? "WHY DON'T YOU GOOGLE+?" Youtube? "INCIDENTALLY, THERE'S THIS GOOGLE+ THING WHY NOT TRY IT?" Picasa? "SHARE YOUR PICTURES ON GOOGLE+!" Google? "GOOGLE FASTER WITH CHROME!"

...yeah.

And I think all Gmail users are set as G+ users by default or something. I know it treats me as a G+ user and sends me notifications and people have me in circles or whatever, and I never agreed to nuthin'.

Anywhoo, Big Brother nothing. All hail our googly overlord.

My thoughts exactly.
And Hadrian seems to fit as googly (see avatar) and overlord.

 

[Jamstruth]

Just because we have accounts doesn't mean we use it. There are millions of Android phones and each and every one of them has a Google+ account since they have a Google account.

 

[chyyran]

I have a G+ account. I used it (posting a "status update") a total of 2 (two) times.

 

[The Catboy]

I had a Google+ account (I disabled it...I think), I wasn't very impressed by it actually. I thought it felt like Facebook, so I just stayed active on Facebook instead.

 

[MelodieOctavia]

 

[redact]

anyone that buys an android phone and links their gmail account is automatically a g+ user so these numbers are nothing near what actual active user count is...