Experian Hitwise has put out a new look at the early adopters of Google+. The service has been out for about a month and a half now, and the invites are easier to come by. Each user has been allotted 150 of them, and a week ago, Google gave us a link to post to the web that enables people to click and sign up.
“Using the Experian Hitwise sample of over 10mm Internet users in the U.S., combined with our New Mosaic segmentation system launched this summer, it’s possible to visualize the adoption of Google+,” General Manager, Global Research at Experian Hitwise Bill Tancer says. “Careful analysis of the Mosaic segments since launch; reveal that in just over six weeks, we’ve moved from innovators to early adopters to early mainstream users visiting the new social network.”
“Within three weeks of launch, the Mosaic type Colleges and Cafés (O53) peaks at a representation index of over 400 (members of this segment are more than four times more likely to have visited Google+ during the week ending July 16, 2011 then the Internet population overall),” he says. “We describe this Mosaic type as young singles and recent college graduates living in college communities.”
” It’s not uncommon for innovators to trial new services online and in some cases abandon those services when they lose interest,” says Tancer. “For the week ending August 6, 2011, Colleges and Cafés have dropped to an index of 73 and now make-up only 0.3% of visits to Google+.”
“However, in this case, when innovators move on, several early adopter segments take their place,” he continues. “One of the predominant early adopter segments in the chart above is A03, Kids and Cabernet, described as ‘Prosperous, middle-aged married couples living child-focused lives in affluent suburbs.'”
“Interestingly, when we look at this segment’s stats for visits to Facebook, they index at a mere 68 and make up less than 0.7% of visits to the leading social network,” he adds. ” While Facebook maintains its position as social networking market leader, a number of New Mosaic segments under-index for visits to the top social networking site. As Google+ matures, watching the migration of these segments will provide an indication of whether Google+ will grow into a Facebook competitor or find its place as a niche social network for specific demographics.”
Google of course just launched games on Google+. It will be interesting to see what kind of demographic impact that has on the service. It should at least help push the service more into the mainstream.
At SXSW earlier this year, Zynga said 40-year old moms are the new hardcore gamers. I wonder if that’s had any impact on the cancellation of soap operas. Watch out General Hospital. Google+ has games now.