Google is now the world’s second largest social network behind only social behemoth Facebook, new figures have revealed.
According to data collated by research firm GlobalWebIndex, Google’s social service has surpassed the likes of Twitter and YouTube, and shaken off reportedly poor initial uptake, to become the world’s second most popular social network based on active monthly users.
“Google , who despite being branded a failure or ghost town by large portions of the media, grew in terms of active usage by 27% to 343m users to become the number 2 social platform,” an official spokesperson for GlobalWebIndex said. “Interestingly for Google, YouTube comes in at number 3, demonstrating the immense opportunity of linking Google’s services through the G social layer. This is also a key indication of why Google integrated with the Google product set is so key to the future of search and the internet.”
With Facebook seeing a little over 50 per cent of the global internet population using its services within the past month, the latest figures have revealed around 25 per cent of users have made active use of Google during the last 30 day period. Elsewhere, YouTube and Twitter have recorded about 21 per cent active use each, despite Twitter being the highest growing social service.
“Data collected in GWI.8 (Q4 2012) demonstrates the continued shift in usage from localised social platforms to global ones with huge growth for Twitter, Google and Facebook,” the GlobalWebIndex report stated.
“The fastest growing network in 2013 in terms of “Active Usage” (defined as “Used or contributed to in the past month”) was Twitter which grew 40% to 288m across our 31 markets (approximately 90% of global internet population).
“21% of the global internet population now use Twitter actively on a monthly basis. This compares to 21% actively using YouTube, 25% actively using Google and a staggering 51% using Facebook on a monthly basis.”
Is Facebook still your social network of choice or have you made the jump to the likes of Google and Twitter? Let us know via the Trusted Reviews Twitter and Facebook feeds or through the comment boxes below.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
