A Lookback: The Downfall of Google+
If you think about it, Google had all the ingredients to design the ultimate social platform.
Not only are they one of the largest firms in the technology industry, but they also already have enough capital in their pockets to channel their focus on research and conceptualization rather than worrying about asset acquisition. In addition to this, the integration of Google+ in Android devices as part of the Google-application package also provided an avenue for a seamless transition for users to opt-in on the social platform, at least in theory. CEO Larry Page, who took the rein the same year that Google+ had gone live, was heavily involved in weaving Google+ to the rest of the Google line too. And at the start — the platform looked promising. Four months out and Google+ already had over 65,000,000 users.
Yet with such a large userbase and a boatload of talent under their helm, Google announced the closure of Google+. How did it happen?
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Let’s take a look back at 3 of the most prominent causes that lead to the platform’s demise.
- Challenging Facebook
It’s absolutely no surprise to anyone that Facebook is the big dog of the social media industry. Google knows this, consumers know this. However, challenging an established network head-on is a fool’s game without incentivizing an actual reason to warrant a transition. If everyone’s active list of friends are already well-connected in another platform (i.g. Facebook), why would anyone waste their time adding the same group of people to a different platform?
Google’s no dummy. They did attempt to come up with ways to attract a userbase to their new platform. But this then begs the question — did it work?
The unique selling point of Google+ is the Circles feature — a predefined and customizable group of people with whom you can connect in a private space. This was the “revolutionary” change that Google was backing up. But in truth, the Circles feature acts just like a repackaged version of Facebook’s Group and Group Chat feature — two already accessible tools ready for your disposal in the platform. This may come across as dismissing all the other neat Google+features— but this is exactly how a new user would think if they didn’t have any qualms with Facebook beforehand. And for the most part, everyone was perfectly satisfied with Facebook.
In addition to this, if just a tiny fraction of your Facebook friends are unwilling to make the switch, what would make it worth your while to essentially disconnect with them and go Google+? Sure, you can balance both social media platforms, but then we circle back that the Google+ features that they so fervently marketed are already available to users on Facebook. The big FB is just too well-entrenched to knock down, even by a formidable technology contender like Google.
2. Tip ’n’ Dip
It took Google Plus one month what took Facebook three years to gain 25 million unique visitors. However, this was not organic. Google weaved Googe Plus features across all Google lines to the point that users had to create an account to comment on YouTube videos. It was frustrating, but this had contributed to it being the fastest-growing social media platform of all time. And, just like a hyped stock that’s gone awry, it’s retention rate dipped faster than one could finish saying the word “Bitcoin”.
It’s not difficult to comprehend that unique visitors does not equate to them actively engaging in the content. Google+ failed tremendously at this front. Let’s look at what 2012 research shows us:
- the average post has less than one +1, one re-share, and one reply
- 30% of users who make a public post never make a second one.
- there is an average of a 12-day differential between posts from users who do post
- average minutes spent per month for a G+ user is 3 minutes. in comparison, Facebook users spend an average of 400 minutes.
Google had the means to amass a userbase to populate Google Plus, there’s no denying that. But if the service itself is unremarkable enough that it fails to maintain sustainable retention to their intended demographic — then an entirely new rehaul should be considered if they want any chances of survival.
3. A Security Breach, and another one
The data from the previous point was collected all the way back in 2012. The closure of Google+ occurred seven years after that, in 2019. With such unsatisfactory engagements over the years, one would be inclined to believe that they would shut down sooner or later. Whether it's by the pitifully low engagements or the back-to-back losses of a couple of hundreds of millions of dollars every month, Google had all the reasons to close it. But Google+, like a clingy and stubborn ex-lover, has really outdone expectations here — clutching on tight for a final wave of headlines and only then leaving with a resounding bang.
During the final years of Google+, the company has disclosed to the public two significant data breaches. Over 10 million sensitive user data have been leaked to outside developers. The worst part is folks at Google fully intended in making the first breach a secret until the second breach happened. The two data breaches occurred less than a year apart; the first one was the breaking point for Google executives to push for the shutdown of Google+ in August of 2019, while a second data breach accelerated these shutdown conditions by four months to April.
RIP Google Plus
Google+ as we know it officially closed its doors for business and personal use on April 2, 2019th. Today, Google has a similar service called Google Currents for internal enterprise communication, which is far and away different from what the service originally was intended to be.
The story of Google+ trying to overthrow Facebook is an inspiring one. It presents to us a real application on how not to meddle with established platforms and instead wait for them to break themselves internally — only really considering to swoop in when they’re in hot water.
Timing-wise, Google was incredibly off-beat. Facebook was at the prime of its growth. But it really was an uphill battle from the start, so a big kudos to Google for trying, I guess.
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