Does this name sound familiar? A new phenomenon for me, learning that the during the days of MySpace and introduction to Facebook, there was another thriving social networking site out there that was widely popular in Brazil. If you are like me, looking at this name and then speaking it out loud, the only voice that I can hear is Cardi B; “Okurrrr!”
But Cardi and this one time social media sensation, have nothing in common. Orkurt was a Google operated social media site, launching in 2004, that was named after it’s creator, Orkut Büyükkökten. With 90% of page views accessed by Brazilian users, the site was structured similarly to any other social networking channel.
Creating Communities
After just four months after it’s creation, over 50,000 communities were created, rising to 1,500,000 at one year! The site was created for users to find these communities through keyword searches, including connecting with friends and classmates through joining groups associated with their schools, employment or childhood neighborhoods. By 2012, the site peaked at 30 million users.
As an invite-only membership, the site ranked popular to technology gurus, giving them the ability to connect with a realm of individuals in the industry (I now understand why I never received one of those prestigious invites!). Navigation was made simple, making it easy for users to find and join their communities. But popularity grew from more than just the communities; the site carried a high standard to their privacy policy when it came to their users.
But Why Brazil?
As a country where cell phones outnumber the human population, Brazil is ranked fifth in the world for the largest online market. Their culture is known for tough accord in digital and social media, with an uprising in online marketing due to the ban of outside advertising. Many use social media as a way to read reviews and research a product before purchasing, trusting other consumers more than any other outside, business developed source. The country also shares a strong response to brand strategies that incorporate video.
Fare Thee Well
Although they had a good ten year run, the site was unable to keep up with the wants and needs of their users. Problems arose pertaining to functionality, such as blockages, limiting the number of friends, and difficulties in loading and sharing photos. We all know that in today’s digital social society, there is no limit on the amount of friends one can have!
“When Orkut stopped meeting the needs of the culture and audiences, they lost their consumers and were eventually replaced by other culturally appropriate cross-platform social media endeavors (Mahoney & Tang, 2016).” Adaptation is key when it comes to continued success for any business. In this case, Google was more forward focused on other social networking venues, that the ball was dropped in keeping with the times when it came to Orkut. By staying true to your users, they will continue their time with you, but you also need to put the time into listening to them and making the appropriate improvements and adjustments to keep a high brand loyalty rate.
Did you ever hear or use Orkut? Leave a comment and let me know!
Reference
Mahoney, L. M., & Tang, T. (2016). Strategic social media: From marketing to social change. John Wiley & Sons.
Social Media or Bust! 
Dear Emma,
I really enjoyed reading your blog. The conversational tone was super engaging. The way you integrated information kept me reading. I had never heard about Orkut until this blog assignment. I think the business was on the right track with a community-based social media platform. It appears this function was extremely attractive to users, hence 30 million of them. Have you heard of MeetUp? They are also a community-based social media platform. The premise as an user is to find groups based on your interests. Join the groups and the groups hold events related to the interest. The people within the groups are geographically placed so they will be local to your location. It us a cool way to meet new people who have similar interests as you.
Thanks
Alana
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Hi Emma,
I really enjoyed your blog post. The pictures and text in your post was very engaging and kept my interest. You included interesting points and a lot of information on the company. I enjoyed reading this case study as it was a social media platform I had not heard of before and it was interesting to learn about it. I also thought it was interesting to see how well the platform did in Brazil. For me that was surprising and it was interesting to see how they use social media to review products.
Thank you of sharing your thoughts.
Allyson
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I really enjoyed the layout of this blog. Your reference to Cardi made me laugh because i felt the same way while saying it. I have been pretty into social media, but somehow missed the memo about Orkut, like most people in the United States apparently. It kind of reminded me of our case study about Weixin, because of it’s popularity among users in Brazil. I think it is a great idea, but i’m sure the creator didn’t foresee the issues that came along with it in the brazilian market. It is a shame that they weren’t able to continue to meet the needs of their users or keep up with their ever-changing needs in order to keep the platform going because it really had potential to be a continued success story in Brazil had they stuck with it.
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