Despite my documented skepticism, it is impossible to deny that Google+ is gripping the world of social media. Still in a testing phase, the new social network has already attracted 25 million users – users that are very excited about the possibilities and very impressed by Google’s innovation.
Although some don’t see why the two must always be compared, the general wisdom is that Google+ is battling an uphill war against Facebook and its entrenched group of familiar users (all 750 million of them). Can Google+ ever pass Facebook when it comes to social? Mobile app developers think that it can and many think that it will.
Appcelerator just released their quarterly “mobile developer report” and in it they ask the developers about the battle between Facebook and Google+.
Two-thirds of those surveyed believe that Google+ can catch Facebook. Why do they believe that? 68% of them said that Google’s access to all of Google’s properties is what makes them a contender. Search, YouTube, Maps – all of these things are what Google can leverage in order to compete with Facebook in social, say the developers.
49% said that Google’s innovations with Google+ can set it apart. They mentioned Hangouts and Circles as examples of the innovation that they liked.
25% said that Google+ will have the most impact on mobile growth and adoption. And 73% of them said that they plan on using Google+ in their apps this year. This is even with the Google+ API still unreleased. That 73% is only barely behind the 83% that plan on using Facebook in their apps.
How fast is Google+ growing? According to data from last week, total visits to the site declined by 3% two weeks ago and average time spent on the site declined 10%. This doesn’t sound like great news. But when you look at this graph (courtesy of Search Engine Land), it puts a small, one-week traffic drop in perspective –
Google+ is the fastest growing social network by far.
And as of right now, we know the population of the Google+ early adopters. For the most part, in the most simplistic terms, Google+ users are Young, Single, American Men of Technology. When the masses begin to flood to Google+ there is no telling how fast they will reach milestones. 100 million users could be right around the corner.