Google+ was the second largest global social network in December 2012, according to GlobalWebIndex. With 343 million active users, it is second only to Facebook in global dominance – though Facebook still has double the number of active users, with nearly 700 million.
Defining active users as “those who used or contributed to a site in the past month,” the study found big global growth for Facebook, and Google+ and Twitter. Twitter saw the greatest change in active users, with 40% growth between Q2 and Q4. In this same time period, Google+ grew 27% in terms of active users.
While Facebook and Google+ filled the top slots, YouTube came in third in terms of active users – with this being the first quarter where the study included the video-sharing platform. Having both Google+ and YouTube in the top three demonstrates “the immense opportunity of linking Google’s services through the G+ social layer.”
According to the study, 21% of the global internet population actively uses Twitter on a monthly basis, 21% actively use YouTube, 25% actively use Google+, and 51% actively use Facebook.
In addition, the data indicates that “Google+ members are actively using the social network rather than just their attached Google services,” reports ZDNet.
Are you surprised that Google+ is performing so well?
