There are no girls on Google+.
That was the hyped conclusion circulating last week when word got around that almost 75% of Google+ users were men. Mashable even referred to the platform as a “sausagefest.” The numbers have shifted a bit at latest count and even the 75% figure is a drop from the 88% that GOOD dissected in a July 7 piece.
I only have one question:
Does it matter?
Initial buzz aside, Google+, ranked 42nd among social networking sites alone, is still a a long way from attaining belong-or-be-branded-a-social-outcast status. So, what if it skews toward men in the 18-34 age bracket right now? Historically, that tends to be who early adopters are. In fact, Google+ users check all the boxes for what we think of as a typical early adopter –- young-ish, male and working in a tech-related job. And I’d argue that it’s only a problem for women not to be equally represented among earlier adopters if the learning curve for a given adoption is steep or if the barriers to entry for laggards get progressively higher. Getting up to speed on Google+ a few months after launch is a far cry from a start-up company trying to enter the car manufacturing market or an individual trying to learn to drive one of those cars at age 65 vs 16.