Facebook, the world’s largest online social network founded in February 2004, is a global phenomenon that has dominated the social media industry for the past few years. A new company planning to enter the social media industry faces a tough barrier of entry against its competition. Despite these challenges, Google decided to take a stab at the industry, introducing their new project Google+, an online platform targeted to “make online sharing more like real life.”
For the first few weeks of the beta launch, Google decided to release a small number of private invitations. This was an effective tactic on behalf of the project’s reputation, as the public’s anticipation grew. Google+ incorporates many features similar to Facebook adding new ideas such as Circles, Hangouts, and Sparks. These features seem to have an edge compared to Facebook’s features, seeing that Google provided their answers to concepts such as “tweeting” and video-calling. Facebook’s initial response to the launch of Google+ was the launch of their new video calling feature in tandem with Skype. Once the social network settles down and becomes more popular, Google will continue use their platform to compete with, and perhaps overtake, the social phenomenon of Facebook.