Golang Adoption Trends: Insights into Developer Community

The Go programming language was specifically created by Google to address their need for efficient software development at a large scale. Every day, Google works on millions of lines of code, primarily written in C++, with a significant amount in Java and Python as well. While all software development takes place in a single source code repository, the process of going from writing code to getting it to run on millions of machines was previously time-consuming and inefficient. According to surveys, the adoption of Golang doubled from 41% in 2019 to 82% in 2020.

Widespread Usage

In 2023, the Go language has reclaimed its position as the 10th most popular programming language in the world. Despite having a smaller community of developers, it still remains popular. In total, there are approximately 1.1 million professional Golang developers who use it as their main programming language. Several years ago, Golang was still in its early stages and had not yet reached the level of sophistication found in other languages. It lacked the convenient features and shortcuts that other languages offered. Additionally, there were no widely-used frameworks available to automate repetitive tasks, and it wasn’t until three years ago that a standardized package manager was developed.

Over the past few years, the adoption of Go has been on the rise among companies, leading them to choose it as their preferred programming language. Go’s appeal lies in its exceptional speed and efficiency, making it the perfect choice for developing large-scale high-performance systems.

Main Advantages

Many companies prefer Golang for its ability to expedite the completion of complex projects and enhance overall work efficiency. Additionally, choosing Golang minimizes the likelihood of encountering bugs, and any necessary bug fixes can be addressed promptly and effectively. You might ask: “Why use Go programming language?” We have outlined the main reasons below.

Networking Capabilities

The majority of today’s software languages originated before the widespread availability of the Internet. Consequently, these languages only provide basic support for networking.

By utilizing the standard Go library, you have the ability to develop advanced web services without the need for external libraries. This streamlines the development process by reducing the number of options available for implementing the same functionality, resulting in fewer implementations to navigate.

Simplicity

One compelling reason to choose Golang is its ease of learning. For software developers with a strong background in C or Java, using Go is a breeze. Despite minor variations in keywords and syntax, Go follows the same procedural approach that programmers can quickly grasp.

Scalability

If you wonder: “What is Golang best used for?”, keep in mind that one compelling reason to utilize Go is its powerful support for concurrency. This language offers Goroutines, which are essentially independent functions capable of running concurrently. Despite their efficiency, Goroutines consume only 2 kB of memory, making them highly scalable for executing multiple concurrent processes. In contrast to Java threads, which are inherently blocking, Goroutines are non-blocking. Essentially, Goroutines combine the asynchronous approach of JavaScript with the tried-and-true multi-threading of Java.

Handy Tools

As an open-source initiative, obtaining development tools for your team will not be a problem. The GitHub repository for Go offers a variety of editors, IDEs, and plugins that you can download. Additionally, there are several cloud-based IDEs that support Go.

A Large Number of Talents

Go is in high demand. Companies are recognizing the numerous advantages of using Golang for their businesses, resulting in a surge of programmers honing their skills in this language. By incorporating Golang into your software strategy, you gain access to a continually growing pool of highly skilled talent. The likelihood of hiring a programmer proficient in Go is significantly high.

Top Companies Using Golang

Golang, created by Google engineers, has been widely adopted within Google for internal projects, including the development of Google Chrome, Google Earth, YouTube, and the Google App Engine. However, other companies adopted it as well.

Dropbox

This prominent player in the cloud computing industry is a prime exemplar of a major corporation harnessing the power of Golang. You might ask: “Is Golang good?” This language has been indispensable for enhancing the scalability and efficiency of the company’s systems. Consequently, Dropbox made a strategic decision to migrate its critical systems from Python to Golang.

In order to address the challenge of the limited availability of comprehensive Go libraries, Dropbox took matters into its own hands and embarked on the development of its proprietary libraries. This enabled them to construct more expansive and robust systems that perfectly catered to their unique needs.

Uber

This prominent corporation utilizes Golang extensively for its geofence service. This service caters to users by providing information about their location and product availability. Geofence allows for precise definitions of specific areas with unique requirements, such as airports, and facilitates the implementation of dynamic pricing. Uber has had exceptionally positive experiences working with Golang. The seamless transition for programmers experienced in C++, Java, or Node, along with the advantageous high bandwidth and delay performance, are particularly valued.

Twitch

It relies on Golang using it to power its most demanding systems. This programming language is highly regarded for its simplicity, security, efficiency, and readability. These qualities make it ideal for effectively handling the complex task of displaying live videos and managing simultaneous chats for a large number of users.

Dailymotion

This leading video streaming website has significantly enhanced the automation of its APIs with the help of Golang and other technologies. By utilizing this powerful programming language, they have been able to conduct numerous automation tests more efficiently, avoiding overwhelming workloads. The simplicity and high performance of Golang, along with its ability for static type checking, play a vital role in achieving this success.

SendGrid

It is a leading cloud-based email service that specializes in delivering transactional messages. As one of the biggest companies utilizing Golang, it plays a crucial role in sending purchase confirmations, delivering offers, handling incoming messages, and forwarding customer inquiries. By leveraging Go as its primary programming language, SendGrid has the capability to efficiently process over 500 million messages every single day.

The Go language stands out as a highly relevant choice for modern times, surpassing many commonly used languages. Its simplicity makes it particularly advantageous for companies tackling large projects.