Only a few weeks after Google+ boasted record numbers of activations and visits, reports indicate that the brand new social networking site may already be losing some thunder.
According to Experian Hitwise, Google+’s visitor rate dropped 3 percent from 1.86 million visits to 1.79 million visits in the week ending on July 23. To make matters worse, the average visit clocked in at 5 minutes 15 seconds – some 10 percent less than the previous week’s 5 minute 50 seconds.
Google declined to comment speficially on the numbers but did claim the above-mentioned metrics don’t account for “very critical” sources of traffic like mobile and navigation bar usage built directly into other services like Gmail.
Mountain View also said the Experian Hitwise report is based on numbers of visits rather than actual number of users.
Within three weeks of its launch, Google+ hit 20 million users, doubling the amount of members cited only a week before, when Google CEO Larry Page confirmed the social network had reached 10 million visitors a day who shared and received more than 1 billion items daily.
Despite the subtle downturn reported by Experian Hitwise, the numbers are still outstanding for Google. Doubling the amount of users in a week from 10 million to 20 million is no insignificant task.
That’s certainly not a sign that it’s slowing down any time soon. Google+ is still a very real threat for Facebook in the social networking space, despite the minor setbacks cited this week.
(Via CNET)
