No, Google+ Doesn’t Have A 60 Percent Engagement Rate

Earlier today, Google CEO Larry Page told an audience on the company’s quarterly earnings call that Google+ is currently seeing 60 percent of its users “engage” on a daily basis, and 80 percent engage weekly. Or did he? That’s how I reported it here on Marketing Land, and also how countless others heard and reported […]

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Earlier today, Google CEO Larry Page told an audience on the company’s quarterly earnings call that Google+ is currently seeing 60 percent of its users “engage” on a daily basis, and 80 percent engage weekly.

Or did he?

That’s how I reported it here on Marketing Land, and also how countless others heard and reported it, too.

During the call, Google’s Vic Gundotra was posting images on Google+ that also give the impression that 60 percent/80 percent of Google+ users sign-in daily/weekly. Here are a couple:

google-plus-stats-1

google-plus-stats

Meanwhile, Google’s Louis Gray, shared the same message on Google+:

“Google+ has achieved 90 million users with at least one new feature every single day, over 1 million businesses and brand pages, and sign in of 60% daily, 80% weekly.”

Despite what I and other reporters think we heard, and despite what Googlers were posting on Google+, the written version of Page’s comments has a slightly different — but very important — change to the wording:

“I’m also pleased to announce that there are over 90M Google+ users — well over double what I announced just a quarter ago on our earnings call. Engagement on + is also growing tremendously. I have some amazing data to share there for the first time: +users are very engaged with our products — over 60% of them engage daily, and over 80% weekly.”

I’ve bolded the important part: Page’s written comments aren’t about how many Google+ users actually use Google+, they’re about how many Google+ users engage with all of Google’s products.

That’s a big difference.

My guess about what happened is this: While going over his written notes during the call, Page misspoke and gave the impression that Google was claiming 60 percent and 80 percent engagement inside Google+. As of this moment, today’s call hasn’t been archived yet on the Google Investor Relations YouTube channel, so I can’t check if that’s the case.

Bottom line: Google+ does not have 60 percent and 80 percent daily/weekly engagement. Instead, those numbers represent how many Google+ users use any Google product.

Postscript: The earnings call is now archived at the URL above. Page begins discussing Google+ at about the 3:10 mark. At one point, he says “engagement on + is also growing” and then goes on to say what’s shown above in his written comments about the engagement actually being with other Google products. Hence, the confusion.

(Tip: Forbes)


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Matt McGee
Contributor
Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.

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