On his Google+ page, unofficial Google statistician Paul Allen said that the company has surpassed 100 million users just one month after he reported that Google+ has 62 million users. Although Search plus Your World and Google privacy updates have sparked some controversy, the growth of Google+ speaks for itself – and search and social media marketers should take note.
According to Allen, the platform’s growth has been driven by the general growth of social media and social media marketing as a whole. Users are experimenting with different platforms to see which best suits their needs and interests. Allen said that 10 percent of Google+ users have created their accounts in the last week and a half, following CEO Larry Page’s announcement that Google+ reached 90 million users.
A portion of this growth may very well be organic. However, Brafton recently reported that Google now requires any new users of its services to create Google+ and Gmail accounts when they create any new account.
In spirit of the growing rivalry between Google and Facebook, Allen used his post to take a veiled shot at Facebook, which is set to apply for its IPO soon.
“It will be fascinating today, or this week, or whenever Facebook actually files, to see if they will announce something startling like 1 billion active users (have they been sandbagging?) or if they, for the first time ever, announce how many total user accounts they have,” Allen wrote on his page.
Brafton recently reported that some experts believe that 1 billion accounts will not be a reality for Facebook until August of 2012.
