I recently read a very interesting article over on Macworld (link at the the bottom) which discusses the inevitable end of Twitter due to Google's new social network Google+. If you don't know, Google+ is the famous silicon valley company's competitor to Facebook, but perhaps also Twitter is it turns out.
This mainly circles around the fact that like Twitter, Google+ is based on the 'following' idea of social networking rather than Facebook's 'friending'. This way, once you are 'following' someone you immediately begin receiving their posts they deem appropriate for the public forum, rather than waiting for them to 'accept' your friendship. The article goes into more depth on this and some pro's and con's of Google+ and Facebook so I implore to read the whole thing.
The other key point that is made, is that when a company like Twitter or Facebook touts ridiculous amounts of users that use their service, how many of these people are actually using the thing? We've all come across the picture of an egg on Twitter or the blank effigy of a person on Facebook, do they count these? Take Twitter, they say they have 175 million registered account but lets break that down:
- 119 million are actually following someone
- 85 million had one or more followers
- Only 21 million are considered 'active' users who follow at least 30 people and have at least 10 followers.
That mean's only 12% of the active accounts are, you know, actually ACTIVE! And call me old fashioned but having being an 'active' user would seem a critical part of being part of a social network.
Otherwise you're just that weirdo that sits quietly in the virtual corner of the internet.
Do you agree that Google+ is a threat to both Facebook and Twitter? Are you using Google+? If not, I am happy to send you an invite, just let me know! Comment below.
