Google+ Now Second Largest Social Network after Facebook, Members Now Exceed Twitter

Remember all the “we don’t need another social network” griping when Google+ hit the scene in June of 2011? Fast forward to today and Google+ has 343 million users, making it second only to Facebook for social network size superiority, according to GlobalWebIndex.

GlobalWebIndex Chart For Social Networks
Social networks in millions of active users. Image credit: GlobalWebIndex

Of course, Google+ still hasn’t caught up to Facebook. GlobalWebIndex estimates that Facebook’s 1 billion user claims are likely pretty accurate, making it not just the biggest social network, but comfortably so. And Facebook appears to be growing faster than Google+, too (33% for active user growth last year, compared to 27% for Google+). Twitter is also growing steadily, with a 40% increase in active users last year, but its membership is only 288 million, putting it in the fourth slot, behind YouTube.
Joshua Gulick

Joshua Gulick

Josh cut his teeth (and hands) on his first PC upgrade in 2000 and was instantly hooked on all things tech. He took a degree in English and tech writing with him to Computer Power User Magazine and spent years reviewing high-end workstations and gaming systems, processors, motherboards, memory and video cards. His enthusiasm for PC hardware also made him a natural fit for covering the burgeoning modding community, and he wrote CPU’s “Mad Reader Mod” cover stories from the series’ inception until becoming the publication editor for Smart Computing Magazine.  A few years ago, he returned to his first love, reviewing smoking-hot PCs and components, for HotHardware. When he’s not agonizing over benchmark scores, Josh is either running (very slowly) or spending time with family.