google-plus

Since its launch in late June, Google+ has amassed more than 25 million users, according to comScore, making it the fastest growing social network of all-time.

It’s official: Google+ has surpassed 25 million users in just over a month, making it the fastest-growing social network in history, according to visitor counts from comScore.

By comparison, Facebook didn’t reach the 25 million mark until three years after it launched. Twitter took two-and-a-half years, or about 30 months, to get to that level, comScore reports.

Of course, massive growth means nothing over the long-term. According to Reuters, MySpace grew faster than either Facebook or Twitter, having reached 25 million unique visitors in less than two years. Today, however, MySpace is stuck at the bottom rung of the social network ladder. Twitter has more than 200 million users. And Facebook is past 750 million users, on its way to the unprecedented 1 billion user mark.

So, that’s one thing to keep in mind. The other caveat is that Google+ has a few massive advantages that makes its rise to 25 million users respectable, but not necessarily impressive.

First of all, Google+ has the full backing of Google and all its widespread resources to help push things along. This is almost the equivalent of having the entire Internet at your back. Neither Facebook nor Twitter (or MySpace, for that matter) had this edge. With the notification bar that sits atop every Google-owned webpage, we are constantly reminded to check G+. Your reporter can attest to the effectiveness of this tactic.

Second, as Business Insider‘s Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry notes, all websites are growing faster nowadays because there are far more people online today than there was five years ago.

Regardless, the growth of Google+ shows that we likely have another major player in the social media game for a long time to come. The site is still officially in invite-only test mode (though getting an invite isn’t nearly as difficult as it was a few weeks ago), so it’s likely that its growth will only continue to skyrocket.

Showing 10 comments

  1. Frederik Vandendriessche at 12:47pm 4th August 2011 it still is in demo / not open to all ... still nice marketing,,,
  2. Mark Hermanson at 7:26pm 3rd August 2011 ....no surprise :-)
  3. Andrew Couts at 6:12pm 3rd August 2011 And if anyone else wants one, too, just hit me up.
  4. Andrew Couts at 6:12pm 3rd August 2011 @April Windham — Shoot me a message with your email address, and I'd be happy to invite you. (I'm the Digital Trends writer who wrote this story, just so you know who's asking for your email.)
  5. Michson Huynh at 5:20pm 3rd August 2011 Mike chill out. Your being a little overdramatic. Google+ is not that great when 90% is still on Facebook. It's like being in a small town with potentials.
  6. Adam D. Herling at 5:20pm 3rd August 2011 Google+ is what's up. It's a nice alternative to all the b.s. with the Fakebook
  7. Nur Syuhada Omar at 4:21pm 3rd August 2011 this is just amazing!
  8. April Windham at 3:46pm 3rd August 2011 could someone invite me????
  9. Eddie Ramos at 3:25pm 3rd August 2011 From google site http://code.google.com/googleapps/faq.html "There are 30 million active users from 3 million businesses and universities." Allow the apps users to use g+ and they will double!
  10. Ankit Das at 3:21pm 3rd August 2011 Google+ nt tht bad as expected :-)
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