Why did Google Plus fail?

Digital Marketing
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Why did Google Plus fail?

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  • Google+ was launched as an invite-only platform in June 2011, before opening up to the public later in the year. But the platform failed to win people over, even after Google pushed it upon the thriving YouTube community.
  • In April 2014, the founder of Google+, Vic Gundotra, left the company and changes came swiftly.
  • Successful features such as Hangouts and Photos were separated from Google+ and run as independent services.
  • Google started to disentangle Google+ from its apps such as YouTube and Google Play, much to the delight of video- and app-makers.
  • In 2015, Google+ had a makeover designed to focus on “communities” but this also failed to ignite interest in the platform.
  • In the end, it was the discovery of two data breaches that spurred Google to close the platform.
  • In 2018, it admitted bugs in its software meant the private information of up to 52 million members had been accessible by third-party developers.
  • “The consumer version of Google+ currently has low usage and engagement - 90% of Google+ user sessions are less than five seconds,” it said in a blog.
  • Although Google+ failed as a mainstream social network, it certainly served its purpose for its short lifespan. It gave Google users the option to the network via their platform, keeping all their data, information and assets in the one place – which is good. However, the fact of the matter is that although they’re taking the world by storm on the search engine front, they simply fell behind when it came to social, predominantly due to the fact that their focus was on everything but the user.