No, Google+ Doesn’t Have A 60 Percent Engagement Rate

Earlier today, Google CEO Larry Page told an audience on the company’s quarterly earnings call that Google+ is currently seeing 60 percent of its users “engage” on a daily basis, and 80 percent engage weekly.

Or did he?

That’s how I reported it here on Marketing Land, and also how countless others heard and reported it, too.

During the call, Google’s Vic Gundotra was posting images on Google+ that also give the impression that 60 percent/80 percent of Google+ users sign-in daily/weekly. Here are a couple:

Meanwhile, Google’s Louis Gray, shared the same message on Google+:

“Google+ has achieved 90 million users with at least one new feature every single day, over 1 million businesses and brand pages, and sign in of 60% daily, 80% weekly.”

Despite what I and other reporters think we heard, and despite what Googlers were posting on Google+, the written version of Page’s comments has a slightly different — but very important — change to the wording:

“I’m also pleased to announce that there are over 90M Google+ users — well over double what I announced just a quarter ago on our earnings call. Engagement on + is also growing tremendously. I have some amazing data to share there for the first time: +users are very engaged with our products — over 60% of them engage daily, and over 80% weekly.”

I’ve bolded the important part: Page’s written comments aren’t about how many Google+ users actually use Google+, they’re about how many Google+ users engage with all of Google’s products.

That’s a big difference.

My guess about what happened is this: While going over his written notes during the call, Page misspoke and gave the impression that Google was claiming 60 percent and 80 percent engagement inside Google+. As of this moment, today’s call hasn’t been archived yet on the Google Investor Relations YouTube channel, so I can’t check if that’s the case.

Bottom line: Google+ does not have 60 percent and 80 percent daily/weekly engagement. Instead, those numbers represent how many Google+ users use any Google product.

Postscript: The earnings call is now archived at the URL above. Page begins discussing Google+ at about the 3:10 mark. At one point, he says “engagement on + is also growing” and then goes on to say what’s shown above in his written comments about the engagement actually being with other Google products. Hence, the confusion.

(Tip: Forbes)