Marketing Case Study - The Downfall of Google+

On October 8, 2018, an article in the New York Times nicely summarizes the rise and fall of Google+:

"Introduced in 2011, Google Plus was meant to be a Facebook competitor that linked users to various Google products, including its search engine and YouTube. But other than a few loyal users, it did not catch on. By 2018, it was an afterthought." 

History of Social Media

As we learned in Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook, Google+ launched in June 2011 with 500 million users. This launch was actually Google’s fourth attempt at creating a social networking site. Previous attempts at social network creation by Google are as follows:

• Orkut (launched in 2004, retired in 2014) 
• Google Friend Connect (launched in 2008, retired in 2012)
• Google Buzz (launched in 2010, retired in 2011)

When Google+ launched, it was a networking site that we were all forced to become a member of. Not many of those 500 million users actually used their Google+ accounts for networking, they had an account only because it was required. In a review of that 500 million number in 2015, it was found that only 1.1 million people were interacting with the site itself. That is a significant difference compared to the reported 500 million users. Those 1.1 million users were faithful to Google+ and I am sure they are devastated to be losing the platform.

Several other social networking platforms are available and have been successful: 

• Myspace launched in 2003
• Facebook launched in 2004
• YouTube launched in 2005 (and was bought out by Google in 2006)
• Twitter launched in 2006

And the list goes on...between 2001 and 2011, social media platforms have grown exponentially.

So what happened with Google+?

Logistically, it doesn't make any sense that Google+ would not succeed. Google seems like the go to name for anything web based. Did they launch too late? Why did Google+ never really get a foot in the game? In my opinion, the failure of Google+ was the mandatory creation. It personally gave me a feeling of distrust. I was forced there whenever I wanted to open a new account and even at this moment, I created my link for this blogger page through Google+ because my computer easily set the account up without my help. Yes, convenience must have been the key.

Value Proposition 

Bringing all your google sites together into one easy networking platform.

Summary of the Downfall

Google+ announced this year that they will be closing down the site. This all came after a March 2018 data breach that they chose not to disclose to users. In October 2018, Google+ blogged about the security breach and how they would be shutting down Google+ for consumers. 

"While our engineering teams have put a lot of effort and dedication into building Google+ over the years, it has not achieved broad consumer or developer adoption, and has seen limited user interaction with apps. The consumer version of Google+ currently has low usage and engagement: 90 percent of Google+ user sessions are less than five seconds."

The Observer reported the breach to users as follows:

"The compromised data included only static, optional profile information, such as name, email address, occupation, gender and age, Google said in the blog post. The incident didn’t affect a user’s messaging history, Google+ posts or other account activities."

My Perspective and Discussion Questions

Marketing Relevance

From a marketing perspective, setting up Google+ to integrate with its other programs in theory sounds like it might work in pulling people in to try out the platform. But not giving consumers the option on whether they wanted to sign up was the downfall. Google should have listened to the consumers in those first couple years of launch and they would have known that the forced enrollment was not going to work. 

Crisis Management and Challenges

Not only is Google unable to hit the mark on launching a successful social media platform, they also have no idea how to listen to their consumers or clean up messes once they have been made. In internal memos with the legal department at Google, they state that they are not going to publicize the data breach because of the recent issue with Facebook and the bad publicity that had. Their plan is to keep it quiet and just close out Google+ to consumers as to not raise any red flags. 

Discussion Questions

Why can't Google get it right when it comes to creating a social media platform?

Do you think forcing consumers to use Google+ was the way to go?

     -- Week 8 - Marketing Case Study

P.S. -- Google has a fairly lengthy list of launched and failed social networking attempts. An extensive list can be found at this link for your viewing pleasure.