Google’s new social networking service is off to a hot start, according to a new analysis from the audience measurement firm ComScore.
Visitors to the Google+ site surged to 20 million unique visitors from around the globe on July 19, according to the measurement firm, just a few weeks after its initial launch.
Google CEO Larry Page said last week that the invite-only service has 10 million users. ComScore’s numbers measure site visitors and not actual users of the Google+ service.
Andrew Lipsman, ComScore’s vice president of industry analysis, told The Wall Street Journal that apart from Twitter, he’s never seen an audience for a service grow so quickly.
In a Friday blog post, he wrote:
“It would be difficult to think of many sites that reached such a large number in such a short period of time. That said, Google does have a built-in visitor base of more than 1 billion to work with, so there is clearly potential to convert a high number of users to its new social tool – even if it is still invite-only.”
As a point of comparison, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said that his service now has 750 million users worldwide.
The numbers are noteworthy because the firms hope that these bases of users will attract businesses to use their networks as a platform to promote their products and services. Google has been worried for some time over Facebook’s lead in this area.
They’re also noteworthy because such numbers help to power the valuations of social media companies — with Facebook currently being valued at around $84 billion.
