Google plus - 4th 'Social Networking' Product Failure of Google after Buzz, Friend Connect, Orkut

Yet another Social Networking platform of Google is about get demolished. Google announced the closure of 'Google Plus (stylized as Google+)' in Oct 2018 (users will be allowed to download/migrate their information before it will be fully shut down in Aug 2019).

logo of Google Plus

This is the 4th Social Networking platform of Google that is about to bite the dust after Google Buzz (launched in 2010, retired in 2011), Google Friend Connect (launched in 2008, retired in Mar 2012), and Orkut (launched in 2004, retired in Sep 2014).

Google has cited 3 reasons for this closure:
1. Low user engagement
2. Difficulties in "creating and maintaining a successful Google+ that meets consumers’ expectations."
3. Google also acknowledged a design flaw in an API that potentially exposed private user data. Google said it found no evidence that "any developer was aware of this bug, or abusing the API" nor that "any Profile data was misused." According to the Wall Street Journal, the data exposure was discovered in the spring of 2018 but not reported by the company due to fears of increased regulatory scrutiny.

What is Google Plus?

• Social networking website.
• Launched in Jun 2011 by Google.
• Built by Vic Gundotra, Bradley Horowitz
• Was supposed to be Google’s answer to Facebook - Suffice to say it didn’t turn out that way
• To shut in Aug 2019

What are the numbers?

• 90% of user sessions on the service last under 5 seconds
• 34M Unique visitors per month
• 395M Active user accounts
• ~74% male audience
• 72% audience is 35 or older
• Is used by 40% of marketers as a social platform
• U.S. users make up 55% of its audience
• Visited by only 22% of online adults per month
• Diehard user base that uses it frequently; as of 2015; is 16M
• As of 2016, 91% of accounts were empty - meaning they were likely created either as spam accounts or just to access other Google services.

What's so special about it?
Upcoming...

How did it rise?
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Why did it fall?

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Click the link below to read Buzz's rise-&-fall story:

saurabhkautilyagupta.blogspot.com/2016/12/buzz-micro-blogging-google-product-fail.html

Click the link below to read Orkut's all-to-none tale:
saurabhkautilyagupta.blogspot.com/2016/12/orkut-social-network-google-product-fail.html

Click the link below to read Myspace's epic dawn-to-dusk saga:

https://saurabhkautilyagupta.blogspot.com/2016/12/myspace-social-network-product-fail.html

Click the link below to read about Google's many other product failures:
https://saurabhkautilyagupta.blogspot.com/2016/12/failed-google-products-lessons-learn.html

Sources:

Rakacreative.com/blog/social-media-marketing/what-is-google-plus-2018

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%2B