ORKUT BY GOOGLE
In 2004 a google employee by the name of Orkut Buyukkoten developed a website titled Orkut. This was a social networking site that was shutdown only 10 years later in 2014. Orkut was very much structured like other social sites. For example, Facebook has groups people can join with shared interests. This was the plan for Orkut, to be able to type in a search word and find communities with this interest. A lot of interest in this site was being able to find classmates and/or former classmates.
Orkut’s initial popularity came from it being a Google site. Not to mention this site was invite only and if you were a member you were deemed as well known/versed in the technology world. With this being said, have you ever seen something you could not have? Well, we all want what we cannot have, making this site very desireable.
Now, I know we have all secretly wondered what someone else thinks of our appearance or personality. Well.. Orkut actually allowed members to rate other members. I do not know about you guys but I did not like the idea of this. The ratings were how sexy, cool and trustworthy they found the other member. Very high school if you ask me. However, I must be the only one who feels this way, because this actually brought more popularity to the sight. Not to mention a huge competition aspect.
Since we now know a little bit of this sites background, lets get into WHERE it saw popularity. Orkut was extremely popular in the Brazil community and it has even been said that if you do not have friends in this community you probably would not find use for the site. Actually, 90% of views on Orkut were made in Brazil (Feigenbaum, 2014).
Why Orkut Failed
Sadly, Orkut never caught on outside of Brazil and this was one of the reasons it ended up shutting down all together. According to Huet (2014), the popularity among the Brazil community was probably a fluke. This is said because Orkut was never purposely marketed to Brazil. One must also take into consideration that not long after Orkut came along Facebook made its big debut. Although, Orkut still remained the leading site in Brazil at the time of their launch this was short lived. A few months into Facebooks launch they bypased Orkut, leaving them with less than 2% (Huet, 2014).
One of the main things I have learned in marketing is: Listen to your audience. One of the main reasons Orkut failed behind Facebook is that Facebook simply listened to the needs of their consumers. Bottom line do you research and implement what your users need.
Rachel's Blog 