Social Developers Hopeful About Google+ Platform Potential
Facebook has had a de facto monopoly on social platforms over the last couple of years, and until the launch of Google+ the main other options for developers been mobile — and those require a distinct set of product and marketing skills.
Context & Ripple Effects
Google+ arrives into a market where Facebook has held what developers describe as a de facto monopoly on social platforms for the past couple of years, with the main escape route being mobile — a path that demands a distinct set of product and marketing skills. Days before this report, mobile developers were already rating Google+'s prospects above Apple's iCloud (more promise in Google+ than iCloud), so developer interest predates any formal platform opening.
The stakes are colored by Google's own history: GigaOM's August 2010 autopsy of why Google had no game framed the company as a serial social laggard, while Bebo's 2007 adoption of Facebook-style apps showed how thoroughly Facebook's platform model became the industry default. A credible second platform would unwind that single-standard dynamic — which is why syndication of this story onto TechCrunch under the frame 'Is G+ Putting Facebook On The Defensive?' matters as much as the hope itself.
First-order effects
- Social game and app developers gain a second large-audience platform to build against for the first time in years, reducing their total dependence on Facebook's distribution and terms.
- Early movers face thinner competition for attention on Google+ than on Facebook's saturated app graph, making launch-window positioning unusually cheap.
Second-order effects
- Facebook is pushed onto the defensive over its developer relationship — platform fees, reach, and API openness become negotiable levers rather than take-it-or-leave-it terms.
- Mobile-first studios, which already told ReadWriteMobile they saw more upside in Google+ than iCloud, become the talent pool both platforms compete to court with better SDKs and promotion.
Third-order effects
- If Google+ sustains developer traction, social app economics shift from single-platform optimization toward portable, multi-platform strategies — echoing how Bebo's embrace of Facebook apps in 2007 made one company's API the de facto standard, a lock-in a real rival would break.
- Developer sentiment becomes the leading indicator for whether Google can convert consumer buzz into an actual platform business, given its string of prior social missteps.
The trend: Social platforms are entering a contest-for-developers phase, where the durability of Facebook's monopoly depends on Google converting launch enthusiasm into shipping APIs.