Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has acquired a top iOS based photo app, Snapseed, in a bid to challenge Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s Instagram, as Google+ subscriber base and monthly active users soar. According to recent reports, from The Verge, the search engine giant has decided to enhance its social platform, Google+’s, competitive edge as it tries to challenge Facebook’s dominance in the social networking business, by acquiring the top iOS photo app.
The Verge reported that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has agreed to acquire NIK Software, a German based developer of photography app Snapseed, which reliable sources deem as the the best app ever built by the German Software company. It is noted that the $4.99 app won Apple’s coveted iPad App Of The Year award in 2011, for its inventive multitouch photo editing interface, and gained over nine million users during its first year on sale, The Verge reported.
Google+ boss, Vic Gundotra, is noted to have written in a blog post saying, “we want to help our users create photos they absolutely love, and in our experience Nik does this better than anyone.” While Snapseed is not Instagram, it is noted that its ability to manipulate photos helps it perform similar tasks to Instagram, and hence, will put Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s social platform Google+ in a position to challenge Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB).
This will not be the only positive from the search engine giant though, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) also revealed that its Social Platform has grown immensely, indicating that it now has 400 million subscribers, as well as 100 million monthly active users.
This week we also hit an important milestone–over 400,000,000 people have upgraded to Google+. It was only a year ago that we opened public sign-up, and we couldn’t have imagined that so many people would join in just 12 months. While Google+ is all about creating a better experience across Google, it’s also a destination. And here too, I’m happy to report that we have just crossed 100,000,000 monthly active users on Google+ (plus.google.com and mobile app).
This statistic, according to The Next Web, was predicted way back, unofficially, by Google+’s Paul Allen, in January when he pointed out the social platform was going to reach 400 million subscribers by the end of 2012. Nonetheless, as the number of subscription does not necessarily mean the number of visitors, the 100 million active users poses no major threat to Facebook’s staggering 955 million, and hence, Google still has a long way to go. Perhaps, Snapseed would help boost this statistic going forward.
The 100 million monthly users disclosure comes after continued criticism over Google Inc.’s method of releasing its statistics, with regard to the development of its social platform, Google+. The company has been declining to give the active users figure, giving rough estimates, as noted by Tech Crunch that it once said that it had 170 million users with 70% of those registering daily log-ins.
Finally, the biggest challenge to the social networking platforms has been monetization, as featured in several of our articles. It would be interesting to see how Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) goes on to take advantage of its newly acquired Snapseed, whose acquisition value as at the time of this writing was yet to be disclosed, and turn the views into cash.
As at the time of this writing, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares were trading at $708.51, down $1.17 per share, or 0.16% from the previous close.
