Google+ growth up to 625K new users per day

After some early speedbumps, the Google+ social network's growth is accelerating and should reach 400 million users by the end of 2012, a third party analyst said Tuesday.

Analyst Paul Allen said the site's growth had picked up considerably during the holiday season, adding 62 million users at a clip of 625,000 per day. Almost a quarter of all Google+ users joined the site in December.

"It may be the holidays, the TV commercials, the Android 4 signups, celebrity and brand appeal, or positive word of mouth, or a combination of all these factors, but there is no question that the number of new users signing up for Google+ each day has accelerated markedly in the past several weeks," Allen said.

The stakes are high for Google's latest attempt to compete with Facebook, Twitter and other sites in the social arena. Google has tied Google+ to its search results and attempted to entice journalists into using the service as a de facto online profile connected to their Google News bylines to spur interest and adoption.

Allen noted the network effect will make Google+ more valuable for users as more people sign up. Allen predicted the site will end next year with more than 400 million users, but it remains well behind Facebook's current figure of more than 800 million active users. 

This article was corrected to clarify Allen does not work for Google on Wednesday at 4:48 p.m.

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