Google+ Tops Ten Million, Makes Lots of Money

Google+ may be on track to be the fastest-growing social network in history, after an announcement Thursday by CEO Larry Page.

As previously predicted by Ancestry.com founder Paul Allen, the service has had skyrocketing numbers, gaining as many as 2.2 million users within a period of 32-34 hours earlier in the week.

The news of the booming population on the social network coincided with a release of the company’s quarterly earnings, which boasted as much success: Google earned $9.03 billion in revenue during the second quarter, a 32% increase over the same period last year. Google-owned sites generated $6.23 billion (69%) of that revenue, while Google’s AdSense program was responsible for $2.48 billion (28%).


“Google is a company unlike any other… despite its size it has retained its agility,” commented one investor on the post. “Bureaucracy is inevitable in a large company, but for its size it is doing remarkably well.”

Page says that reactions to Google+ have been largely positive, with the "Circles" function being a big hit. The network has hit the 1 million and 10 million user milestones faster than any other social network, and by some estimates it could be the fastest-ever to reach 100 million users.

Google+ is still in a closed invite-only trial, but is expected to be opened to the public by the end of the month.