One of the news items I read today was about the estimation that Google+ now has 62 million users. Considering it was about 40 million in October, this number looks about right. This may make it the fastest growing social network ever, but its still a david to the goliath that is Facebook.
One of the things that the post mentions is the network effect - that as more people use it, its inherent value increases as a social network, hence it will add users at greater speed. That means that growth will be "super linear", the visualization of which is sometimes called the hockey stick graph. Now, where have I seen such a graph before...
One of the things that the post mentions is the network effect - that as more people use it, its inherent value increases as a social network, hence it will add users at greater speed. That means that growth will be "super linear", the visualization of which is sometimes called the hockey stick graph. Now, where have I seen such a graph before...
Android, of course! Android was a relatively slow starter. This changed soon, though, and due to the huge marketing that went with the first Verizon Droid, and the availability of android phones from many manufacturers for all carriers, it got a strong kick. It may or may not have been the best phone OS, but it provided different things to different people - they were available with or without physical keyboards, small and big, cheap or expensive etc.
How does this all relate to Google+? Because the biggest reason for Android's hockey stick growth is the same as is being predicted for Google+. The reason is that increasing usage drives even more adoption. People see their friends using Androids and buy them. Manufacturers and carriers put more effort into their range, developing better quality phones with a wider range of features and specifications. And most importantly, developers consider it an important platform to support.
Of course, all this growth must be supported by real development and innovation in the platform. It is clear that Android has shown that - the UI has improved with every new release, its implementation of notifications and multitasking cannot be beaten, its the only platform that supports the new 4G networks, and the only real supporter of third party innovation like in the form of amazing Swype and SwiftKeyX keyboards. Google+, one can argue, is following this trend - Hangouts keeps adding interesting new features, Google+ search is amazing, and I really like the privacy model which prevents me from reading all the spam (updates not meant for me) at Facebook. Every new improvement to Google+ will pull in more users, and some day its usage will reach critical mass, after which its hockey stick growth is all but guaranteed.
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