Google+ hits 100-million users, watch out Facebook

Following the anticipation around Facebook’s imminent IPO, analysts report that Google’s social play, Google+, will hit the 100-million users mark on Wednesday evening.

Paul Allen, a Google+ analyst and founder of Ancestry.com, believes the social network later comer will hit “100.8-million users by the end of the day”. The most recent Google+ figures have it sitting 90-million, which Larry Page announced earlier this month while presenting Google’s quarterly report.

Page noted in his report that Google+ was “growing tremendously” and that the user number had “doubled” in a three month period.

This is remarkable growth for a network that is not even a year old. According to Allen, the network has been growing at a pace of “more than 750 000 new users per day since the 19th, based on analysis of users with hundreds of different surnames. If that rate holds steady, Google+ will end the year with 345-million users.”

Allen believes Google+ will hit 400-million users by the end of 2012, largely thanks to Google’s “many dials and levers” which it will “use this year to increase sign ups and usage, including its Android 4.0 rollout.”

This 10% growth spurt in a 2 week period could be the result of Google’s decision to allow teens to join the social network as well as its integration of Google+ into its core search function.

“By building a meaningful relationship with our users through Google+ we will create amazing experiences across our services. I’m very excited about what we can do in 2012 — there are tremendous opportunities to help users and grow our business,” said Page.

Google+ seems to be fiercely chasing Facebook, which is predicted to hit the one-billion user mark by the end of this year thanks to major growth in emerging markets. It’s a battle of the social networks it seems.