01Nov

Google+: An Outdated platform?

Social Media Network Google+ is coming to an end, after it was announced that Google would cease to continue the consumer version.

Launched in June 2011, Google+ replaced Google Buzz, experiencing rapid growth in its initial years. As other social media platforms continued to grow in popularity, Google+ was redesigned in 2015, in a bid to keep ahead of the quickly changing social media landscape.

While Google remains a pioneer within the online world, this redesign didn’t do enough, with the company stating it has “low usage and engagement”, with a surprising 90 per cent of users remaining on Google+ for less than five seconds. Combined with the revelation of a security issue which released users’ profile data before being fixed earlier in the year, 2018 has proven too much for the platform to continue to operate.

The consumer version of Google+ will be fully discontinued in August 2019, while it has been reported that the service will remain accessible for enterprise customers to converse between co-workers.

However, this is not the end for Google who explained that they are now shifting their focus to a “secure corporate social network”.

Will we see a re-emergence of a Google+ style social media business network, and could it give LinkedIn some serious competition? Stay tuned.