Stay on Top of Enterprise Technology Trends Get updates impacting your industry from our GigaOm Research Community

Update: On Monday, Bime Analytics responded to many of the concerns posted here and elsewhere on the Internet about the data presented in this infographic, specifically, the data point about active and inactive users, saying that “a user is classed as active if they have posted at least once publicly on G+.” Bime has posted a new infographic that omits that data point, which is shown below. We have updated the post accordingly.

Now closing on its second month, the Google+ social networking platform has seen rapid growth — and lots of attention — in its short lifetime. But new research indicates that the lion’s share of Google+ users do not actually pitch in on the site very often, if at all.

Here are some interesting tidbits from data compiled by Bime Analytics, which polled a voluntary sample of more than 10 million Google+ users:

A silent majority exists — in a big way. The study found that a whopping 83 percent of Google+ users are currently classed as inactive. It bears mention, though, that other social networks have the same issue: A small portion of very active users, and a large silent majority of lurkers or just plain inactive accounts. For example, research indicates that 80 percent of Twitter users have Tweeted fewer than 10 lines, and 40 percent of users have never sent a single Tweet.

It bears mention, though, that other social networks have the same issue: A small portion of very active users, and a large silent majority of lurkers or just plain inactive accounts. For example, research indicates that 80 percent of Twitter users have Tweeted fewer than 10 lines, and 40 percent of users have never sent a single Tweet. Students are taking over. As of mid-August, the dominant occupation for Google+ users was “student.” That’s a big shift from the month prior, when the dominant occupation was “engineer.”

As of mid-August, the dominant occupation for Google+ users was “student.” That’s a big shift from the month prior, when the dominant occupation was “engineer.” It’s still a man’s world. The percentage of female users was 30 percent, a slight increase from the month prior when women made up 28 percent of Google+’s user base.

Here are the survey results in handy infographic form (click to enlarge):



Source: Google+ User Statistics Part II – BimeAnalytics.com