Orkut - The Social Media Sensation that Died an Early Death

Dawn M. Keddy
Nov 10, 2024
4 min read

Updated: Nov 10, 2024

Orkut was a members-only social media platform that was hugely popular in Brazil. In part, this was because there are strict marketing laws that prohibit or restrict businesses from marketing their products externally.

At its peak, Brazilians made up 90 % of Orkut's audience base - where there are more devices than people and online marketing is the primary resource used by businesses for their digital marketing plans.

Unfortunately, Orkut was short-lived, lasting only a decade before Google pulled the plug. However, it's important to remember that in its heyday, Orkut maintained leadership in the online market for seven years.

Orkut’s Marketing Action Plan

Goals

Orkut identified “tangible and specific” (Mahoney, 2016, p. 183) goals by linking their core business objectives to their anticipated outcomes (Mahoney & Tang, 2016, p. 183). For example, Orkut’s initial objective was to provide a way for users to connect with other users and communities by using keyword searches and exploring fellow user’s accounts.

Target Audience

Technological professionals and students were particularly fond of Orkut (Recuero, 2011, as cited by Mahoney & Tang, 2016, p. 183) because users could connect with people they knew personally as well as the people they held in high regard.

Within four months of its launch, Orkut had about 50,000 users. By the end of its first year, the company boasted about 1.5 million users. And, at its peak, Orkut’s audience had grown to 30 million users (Spertus et al., 2005, as cited by Mahoney & Tang, 2016, p. 193).

Orkut’s large mass audience was comprised of the users and communities, and their smaller (niche) audiences included the individual communities for which users were members.

Social Media Choice

Orkut developed its website with a digital platform that incorporated a friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) that was neatly designed, clearly labeled, and added an air of sophistication. The well-planned media build helped users easily navigate the site and find communities to join.

Resources

Orkut didn’t appear to have a dedicated resource management team to check the quality of shared messages however, it stood on the back of Google’s reputation.

Policies

The prestigious company enhanced consumer attraction by implementing an “invite-only” membership list (Mahoney & Tang, 2016, p. 193), and integrating a strict privacy policy to protect its member’s personal information.

Monitoring

Orkut’s users were able to make recommendations about products and services through community memberships (Spertus et al., 2005, as cited by Mahoney & Tang, 2016, 193) and the company monitored those interactions to gather marketing data.

Activity plan

Orkut’s users could “rate other users based on how sexy, cool and trustworthy they found each other" (Recuero, 2011, as cited by Mahoney & Tang, 2016, p. 193). The friendly competitions helped increase Orkut’s base and the communities to which users belonged.

In what areas did Orkut fall short?

Orkut neglected to add links to traditional external social media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and the like.

Additionally, the company’s infrastructure did not support video sharing, and users experienced frequent blockouts, as well as a great amount of difficulty uploading and sharing pictures.

In fact, because YouTube, Blogger, and Google+ outpaced Orkut's growth and they were capable of handling uploading and sharing dynamic content, Google decided to shut down the site rather than increase its social media presence on other platforms (Oreskovic, 2014).

Orkut’s Community Structure and Digital Consumers

While Orkut’s original goal was to reach consumers who wanted to connect with other consumers to socialize and interact, both individually and within communities, consumers eventually outgrew Orkut’s platform and sought more interactive channels like YouTube and Google+, for example.

Consumer Participation and Diffusion Strategy

Like water and electricity traveling the path of least resistance, consumers typically select social media channels that offer the best experience with the least amount of effort.

Photo by: Orkut in Google ChromeWatch | Uploaded by: Google, Feb 4, 2009

A diffusion strategy for Orkut wouldn’t have been of benefit to Google since they already owned YouTube which had already outgrown Orkut. Google merely had to open the door and encourage Orkut consumers to join the YouTube party.

Brazilian Culture and Brand Experience

The Brazilian market accounted for about 90% of Orkut’s consumer base. Part of its popularity was induced by the country’s strict outside marketing laws which made Orkut an ideal place for consumers to market their products.

Digital Engagement and Social Media Strategy

As a social media practitioner, I would feel an obligation to strongly advise businesses to build a solid social media presence on at least three major platforms.

For example, a business could use Twitter to send and receive multiple synchronous messages and use Facebook to develop a dialogue between consumers.

Blogs are a useful tool but only when they allow readers to get to know and understand the blogger on a personal level. Like Facebook communication, Blogs must embrace the consumer comment as a marketing and analysis tool.

A company could manage a LinkedIn account but it must be assigned to qualified employees in the company to help build brand ethos.

A YouTube channel presents the company with an opportunity to show videos that help audiences get to know their product on a dynamic level (Bottles & Sherlock, 2011, as cited by Mahoney & Tang, 2016, p. 185).

The End...

For a visual overview of Orkut's lifespan, click here.

But Wait - Look Who's Saying "Hello"

When Google shut down Orkut in 2014, its founder, Orkut Büyükkökten, reimagined his platform and decided to launch "hello," a social media site that aims to share more love and smiles rather than likes and comments. "It's the first social network built on loves, not likes," says Büyükkökten (n.d.).

#orkut #orkuthello #orkutgoogle

References

Büyükkökten, O. (n.d.). Orkut Hello Network. orkut.com. Retrieved September 25, 2021, from http://www.orkut.com/index.html.

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Graphical user interface. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved September 25, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/technology/graphical-user-interface.

Goigher, P. (2014). Bye bye Orkut - Google says goodbye to its first social network. Retrieved 2021, from https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2014/09/Google-Says-Goodbye-to-its-1st-Social-Network-infographic.html.

Mahoney, M. L. & Tang, T. (2016). Strategic Social Media (pp. 183, 193). Wiley. Kindle Edition.

Oreskovic, A. (2014, June 30). Google to Shut Down Social Networking Service Orkut in September. Reuters. Retrieved September 25, 2021, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-orkut/google-to-shut-down-social-networking-service-orkut-in-september-idUSKBN0F51ZD20140630.