Only one month after its launch, the Google+ project has gained tremendous momentum and praise, and it's already forecast to become the second most popular social networking site in the US by mid-2012, according to a study by YouGov.
Plus Surging to Second Place
According to a survey conducted from July 29 to August 2, roughly one month after Google+ first launched, 13% of US adult Internet users have already signed up for a Google+ account and another 9% (roughly 16 million online adults) plan to do so in the next year, amounting to 22% market penetration by mid-2012.
Considering the expected adoption levels of Google+ with other major social networks, YouGov found that Google+ is on track to surpass MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn in US membership over the next year.
What About Facebook?
As Google+ gains followers, Facebook use may be affected: 30% of Facebook users who use Google+ plan on cutting down time spent on Facebook this year.
Plus Users Already Engaged
Among Google+ users, 45% of report reading content once a day or more; only Facebook's 62% is higher among social networks:
Meanwhile, 46% of Google+ users say they create content (e.g., creating updates; posting links) at least once a week. That level is on par with Twitter (42%), which lends itself to easy (140-character) content creation.
Google+ Demographics
Though Google+ is still in its early-adoption stages, and its user demographics are likely to change, its current members are typically young, educated, single men who are heavy Internet users:
- 60% are male.
- 43% are age 18-29 (vs. 31% Facebook users).
- 59% have a college degree (vs. 37% of Facebook users).
- 48% are single (vs. 33% of Facebook users).
Interestingly, and possibly as a consequence of the steep launch trajectory, some early adopters have become early abandoners: 31% of Google+ users report having abandoned their accounts or say they have not yet created any content on them.
Google+ Reaches 20M in First Three Weeks, led by US
In its three weeks of operation (as of July 19, 2011) Google+ reached roughly 20 million visitors worldwide, according to comScore data. The US audience led that adoption with 5.3 million visitors, followed by India (2.8 million), the UK (0.87 million), and Canada (0.86 million).
Fastest-Growing Social Network, Ever?
Maybe. Industry insider Bill Gross, the founder of business incubator Idealab and its Twitter app builder and buyer Ubermedia, wrote on his Google+ page (on July 11): "I predict that Google Plus will go from 0 to 100,000,000 users faster than any other service in history." (Text may not be readable for those without Google+ accounts, yet.)
About the data: Findings are from a sample of the YouGov panel of 1,003 US residents, nationally representative of the online adult population, interviewed from July 29 to August 2, 2011.
