I have to admit that for the last two months or so, I have been praising Google+ on its appeared users growth in many opportunities I had. But as it turns out, not everything is shining for Google’s social network. In fact, there are some things that are pretty dark…
New data from the esteemed research firm comScore and published in the Wall Street Journal are showing that Google+ users engagement rate is very low compared to other social networking sites. Actually, according to the stats I don’t know if we can even call it “engagement”.
The data reveals that Google+ users have spent in January on average 3 minutes only on the social network. Yes that’s right, THREE minutes only! Just for comparison, social media users have spent on average 6.75 hours on Facebook, 1.5 hours on Tumblr and Pinterest, 21 minutes on Twitter, 17 minutes on LinkedIn and 8 minutes on MySpace.
Wow. Facebook is 135 times more engaging than Google+. And even a bigger Wow, MySpace (yes, MySpace!) is nearly 6 times more engaging than Google+… Indeed MG, Ouch.
As I already stated in the past, eventually it doesn’t really matter how many REGISTERED users you have, but how many ACTIVE users you have. Until now, Google mostly bragged about the growth of its Google+ user-base but left blurry statements about their engagement. Maybe these stats can explain why.
And they keep throwing vague information. Google+ VP product Bradley Horowitz has been quoted saying “we’re growing by every metric we care about” (what the hell does that even mean?) where another Google’s spokeswoman was quoted saying that these stats are dramatically lower than the stats Google+ team have. How do they define dramatically? Even if we multiply the stats by 3, they are still pretty low…
Google are claiming in the WSJ story that Google+ wasn’t built as a destination site like the other social networks, but more as an additional social layer for Google products. Are you kidding me? Social layer? I’m not buying it. This kind of platform alongside all its features was clearly built as a social network DESTINATION and not LAYER!
Even in bad times, Google should be proud they managed to create such a sophisticated advanced platform which other social networks sometimes copying and imitating its features. This platform was designated to be a top social networking destination, whether they are saying that or not. The debate shouldn’t be focused around that.
The only question we must ask (and so as Google) is if we should give Google+ the benefit of the doubt from the time perspective. The numbers are there and they can’t hide from them. Instead, Google+ team must work on providing innovative new features and improving the platform so the users will find it more engaging.
The fellows at Facebook declined to comment about the report (but surely they were happy as hell).
