Six weeks after launching, the demographic make-up of people who are visiting Google’s new social network Google Plus is changing to become less focused on early adopters than it was at launch, says leading web traffic monitoring company Experian Hitwise, which posted the results of a 10 million person tracking study today.
It will be very interesting to see how the graph below looks some time after yesterday’s launch of Games on Google Plus. The use of arbitrary terminology in the graph below is a little confusing, but the simple version is: Google Plus is now more popular among suburban parents and well-off empty nesters than it is among the College and Cafe crowd.
Above: Click for full size. The Y Axis represents how much more likely a group is to visit Plus than the average person included in Hitwise’s 10 million people tracked.
At launch Plus was disproportionately popular among people in its “Colleges and Cafes” demographic than any other group, followed closelyby the group Hitwise calls “Status Seeking Singles.” Six weeks later, College and Cafe visitors have dropped dramatically, Hitwise says. Status Seeking Singles are now the group most into Plussing, but are tied with a group they call “Kids and Cabernet” (“Prosperous, middle-aged married couples living child-focused lives in affluent suburbs.”) and financially comfortable empty nesters are growing fast on the site as well.
Honestly, I don’t know that affluent suburban parents or well-off empty nesters really count as mainstream – but the point is, Plussin’ ‘aint just for college kids and hipsters anymore.
