Another blow to Google+ as Vic Gundotra leaves the company
Vic Gundotra, the head of Google+, is departing from Google, and the already uncertain future of the social hand of the company becomes murkier.
Vic has spent almost 8 years at Google. In that time he’s not only led the charge for social at Google, but he also helped start Google I/O, the annual developer conference held by Google that introduces and highlights their new gadgets and technical paths for the future.
Social market position
Google+ has not been widely accepted by the global internet community since it’s launch in 2011. It’s reported that as of the end of last year, 2013, the service had 540 million users. Some reports suggest that only 30 percent of those users are active (162 million), where by that could mean the service was used at least once a month. Compare that to Facebook, which are around 1.28 billion active users, as of the beginning of this year, it’s obvious Google+ hasn’t taken the world by storm.
My own experience on Google+ reminds me of little isolated ponds of users, none ever really overlapping. The service just hasn’t hit critical mass, and may never.
With Mr. Gundotra leaving, and new leadership coming in, the overall direction of the service will inevitably change. Even minor changes are enough to cause a destabilization of momentum, which would be catastrophic to the service’s already precarious position in the social market.
Good luck Google, don’t screw it up.
