I’m a cheerleader for social media, but when they fail, it can be instructive. First Friendster, then MySpace, and now Google Plus. What was Google’s strategy for creating its own social network? Why did it fail? And what did it do right along the way? Here’s my analysis.
The Rise
When Google Plus debuted in 2011, I was skeptical, since similar efforts Google Buzz and Google Friend Connect had both fizzled. But if any company had the infrastructure chest to take on Facebook, it was Google, which owns YouTube, the Chrome web browser, and the Android mobile operating system — all of which could be integrated into the social network. MySpace was no longer a competitor, so perhaps Google could solve some of Facebook’s problems, further innovate in the social space, and give people a legitimate choice?
Google Plus’ numbers were great — first. A month after launch, G+ had 40 million users. At that time, Facebook had over 500 million users worldwide, half of whom logged in every day. Still, Google Plus was gaining a million followers a day, while others were encouraged to create a profile when logging into YouTube or Google Maps. While the format was similar to Facebook’s — some would say too similar — the Hangouts feature was unique. Users could video chat with up to nine of their friends (15 with a business account), a huge improvement over Skype. Internet startups with far-flung employees loved it. International Space Station astronauts held a live chat from orbit via Google Hangouts. President Obama answered voter’s questions in a Hangout as well.
By the end of 2013, Google’s Vice President of Social Business Vic Gundotra could claim that Google Plus had 300 million active users; respectable, if still way behind Facebook. And how “active” were those users? There was a joke going around that only Google employees used Google Plus. But eventually the joke became that even those people weren’t using the site. Mashable’s Ben Parr found that, in the first three months of Google+’s existence, Google CEO Larry Page had only posted seven times; co-founder Sergey Brin had posted 12. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt didn’t post anything until Steve Jobs’ death, 107 days after the service went public.
The Fall
And while some brands — like BMW — were using the platform in innovative ways, many seemed to be on it just to be on it. Superstars were hard to find, since many of the features were available on other sites; why should a celebrity create new content for Google Plus when they could just cross-post from Facebook or Instagram?
The backlash escalated. ReadWriteWeb asked its fans why they weren’t using Google Plus. The most popular response was that their friends weren’t on it, a cyclical argument that can kill a social network. In late 2014, former Google employee Chris Messina (creator of the hashtag), wrote a scathing blog post about G+ where he admitted that he and the company “screwed up” what could have been a social site that combined personalized search functions. “Why did the world need another Facebook, unless to benefit Google by making their ad targeting more effective?” he wrote.
Around the same time, YouTube co-founder Jawam Karim posted on his YouTube page, “Why the f— do I need a Google+ account to comment on a video?” Many YouTube users and commenters felt the same way. No one likes being forced to sign up for anything to do something that required no effort before. Google was insisting that people use a social network they simply didn’t want to use. Bad PR, bad user experience, bad everything.
In 2014, Google began reassigning G+ employees to other teams. And a few weeks ago, it announced that users would no longer need a Google Plus account to access YouTube or other Google features; a Gmail account would suffice. The headlines that followed made it more clear: “Google Gives Up on Google Plus as a Facebook Rival,” wrote the Wall Street Journal’s “Digits” blog.
The Next Phase
In that same article, Google Plus chief Brad Horowitz says that his department is now referred to as “Streams, Photos and Sharing.” Google Photos, for example, lets users store and share photos and videos. It launched last year and does not require a Google Plus account. Other features are moving to other Google apps. And Hangouts, the most popular and exciting app in my opinion, isn’t going anywhere.
Horowitz posted on Google Plus that new features were coming, like Collections, which looks like a cross between Pinterest and Storify — an interesting idea. He describes the change to G+ as a “pivot” and says “Google+ can now focus on doing what it’s already doing quite well: helping millions of users around the world connect around the interest they love. Aspects of the product that don’t serve this agenda have been, or will be, retired.”
So it looks like Google will continue to innovate in the social space, without forcing users of other Google apps to set up an account or try to emulate the unstoppable Facebook. It’s an interesting lesson in failure from one of the world’s most successful companies.
But does it mean that no social network can ever rival Facebook, whose mysterious algorithm controls what users see from their friends, family, and brands? Stay tuned.
Jason Ginsburg is Director of Interactive Branding at Brandemix.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jody Ordioni is the author of “The Talent Brand.” In her role as Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Brandemix, she leads the firm in creating brand-aligned talent communications that connect employees to cultures, companies, and business goals. She engages with HR professionals and corporate teams on how to build and promote talent brands, and implement best-practice talent acquisition and engagement strategies across all media and platforms. She has been named a "recruitment thought leader to follow" and her mission is to integrate marketing, human resources, internal communications, and social media to foster a seamless brand experience through the employee lifecycle.
