While Hangouts still remain the most popular route for the internet giant to woo users to its social networking platform, Google Plus is coming on its own, surpassing Twitter on active users and reaching the 50 crore mark

Of late, it is quite unlikely that you may not have heard of major politicians in India doing hangouts on their Google Plus accounts. Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who is active on most social media platforms, did more than one Hangout. Finance minister P Chidambaram, minister of road transport and highways CP Joshi, minister of communications and IT Kapil Sibal did Hangouts.

Internationally also Hangouts became a platform for politicians to interact with citizens with the likes of US President Barack Obama, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak doing Hangouts.

Hangouts, a new feature which allows 10 users at a time to video chat, also differentiates Google Plus from the other social networking platforms. Hangouts has enticed a lot of users and is driving interactions on the platform, helping Google Plus to cross the 50 crore user mark recently. And is not just restricted to politics as film companies as well as actors are using the platform to interact with fans driving millions of users into the network.

According to GlobalWebIndex, a social media analytics firm, Google Plus with 36 crore active users and growing at 33%, has surpassed Twitter, which has 30 crore active users. Pinstorm, a digital marketing and advertising firm, points out that while Facebook has about seven crore users in India, Google Plus numbers is estimated to be around two crore.

A year ago, critics called Google Plus a ghost town. Since a user can be active just by doing a +1 (similar to the like on Facebook) or sharing a video on YouTube, an indication of Google leveraging highly on its other products for Google Plus activity.

According to the internet company, it still has more than 14 crore active users who go to the platform and check the active stream/feeds. Compared with Facebook which has 110 crore people and daily users of around 65 crore, the number comes to one fifth of the competitor?s active user base. Despite a high proportion of dormant users, analysts feel that at 13 crore users going through their feeds make it a huge market, if comparisons are not made to Facebook.

Sandeep Menon, director, marketing, Google India feels that only people who check out Google Plus active stream (or feeds) are really engaging in social activity is a traditional notion. Mahesh Murthy, founder of Pinstorm, notes that Google has kept its ambitions low and has exceeded the expectations. ?They (Google) don?t see it as a site but as a product of the family,? says Murthy. Google which integrates all its accounts with one ID, makes video watching on YouTube, a platform where people can do social interactions through Google Plus.

While Hangout is a popular feature, Menon says that going by the kind of interactions happening at Google Plus, people has identified it as much more than Hangouts. ?The idea is to make communications and social interactions easier,? he notes. Menon points out that the introduction of communities?based on interest?recently on the platform. He cites the instance of people watching IPL on YouTube, commenting on the IPL community and doing hangouts with like minded people, all at once making it a compelling product, which will enhance its usage.

?Hangout is a great feature which is helping Google Plus retain its users and add new ones. Google Plus needs to be open to developers and to streamline the necessary tools and processes. This approach can help to build the social ecosystem, in addition to that of Google?s existing products. Google plus is an evolutionary social network,? says Neha Gupta, senior research analyst, Gartner India.

Google has brought Hangout to Gmail to users in India this February which Menon says that shows the company is not insecure about a Google Plus without Hangouts. Hangouts can also be watched live on YouTube, another Google product. ?I am happy with the way it has progressed. It has developed more as a social spine of everything at Google. We are seeing an increased adoption in India as well,? says Menon.

Murthy of Pinstorm feels that while Hangout will entice the users to come and post comments and video, such activities will gain traction and users will start using the other features slowly. The key pillars of strength for Google Plus in India according to the company are politics, entertainment, cricket and education space. An admission that unlike Facebook, where friends and family drive interactions, Google Plus has its focus on public personalities and professionals. This puts it in a mix where it runs more into Twitter or LinkedIn territory than Facebook.

?The problem is my friends and family are still not active there. It is more a social discovery platform rather than a social network. On Google Plus, we are interacting more with strangers,? says Paritosh Sharma, a social media analyst. He also feels that with the Facebook Timeline getting more and more commoditised with sponsored content, there is an opportunity for Google Plus. According to him Google must introduce context aware feature more into the platform to attract users for increased usage.

Karthik Srinivasan, a music blogger and social media head for a communications firm, feels that Google Plus has the best of both worlds with hashtags, what is recommended or what is top trending topics. ?Brands also like the fact that unlike Facebook posts, Google Plus posts will pull up on search engine. Somehow, Google is not aggressive enough in promoting the features and advantages of Google Plus,? says Srinivasan, who is active on most of the social media platforms. For instance, if a brand has its video post of its advertisement on Google Plus stream, it will pull up on search. That can be viewed and commented there.

Analysts feel that there is no mad rush by brands to get followers, likes or comments on Google Plus unlike on Facebook and Twitter making most of the followers real, where half the followers are fake on other platforms. According to Murthy despite having lesser number of users, Google Plus may be sometimes reaching at more number of consumers for a brand. ?The maximum visibility that I get on Facebook is 12%, but on Google Plus, all my followers will see my post. The brands also need to pay and promote the post. Facebook post also will not come on search engine and the reach offered for money has killed the virality,? he says.

According to experts Google has won most of the battles like Search, Mail or the mobile operating system (Android) without being aggressive. Citing Google?s decision not to put advertisements on the platform yet at a time competitors are flooded with advertisements, Murthy feels that Google?s strategy is long-term. Google?s philosophy or rather strategy of giving most of the services as free has been something that has worked wonders for the firm; the enormous success of Android being the most coveted.