Orkut was a platform that was owned by google that owned the social media market share worldwide during its heyday. At one-point Orkut was the largest social media in the world. With most of its market coming from Brazil, India, and the US. Orkut was launched a month before Facebook and topped Facebooks numbers internationally for years despite Orkut being a invite only platform.
Orkut hit the in markets like Brazil and India because of their periods of early digital growth due to middle class economics in those countries. The exclusive nature drew people to the brand by people being curious of what is behind the wall. Then finding someone who was in the “In crowd” to invite them to Orkut communities. There were an immense number of communities that made up the Orkut social platform.
With the power of Google and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in its infancy stages google was a major player in early SEO through keywords. They set the president for SEO and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Orkut monopolized SEO tactics through keywords to drive the platform. This opened the door for SEM for companies to target the exact communities that fit their target market. They Brazilian market relies heavily on interpersonal reviews of products and Orkut did not stray from this type of social interaction.
Even though Orkut had market control, a strong foundational platform for social interaction and business. They failed to evolve with times and they sadly were left behind by platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Orkut had a number of functionality issues with the platform. Social media culture shifted from text-based platform content to graphical media-based content. Orkut failed to update the platform to support more media content and shareable content. Hence, they just became less social by the standards of an advancing market.
Brazil had a very social society that believed in blogging, social gaming, and directly engaging with brands. Orkut allowed them to do all three of those things. Brazilians got the social interaction they need from each community that affirmed their brand interactions and decision making.
In the Indian culture Orkut catered to India like no other platform had ever done before. Orkut translated their entire site into Six Indian Languages. They directly infiltrated the Indian culture by tying together communities with no language barriers. This connected different Indian societies that would not have conversed on their own.
As a brand you should continue to seek new ways to identify with your audience and to openly interact with them in ways, they wouldn’t think was possible. Do not only sell your brand, but also do giveaways, and push educational information. Take time to get to know your patrons.
I agree with the breakdown and background of Orkut, how it paved the way for other social media platforms that came after. I think an area that is very much overlooked when it comes to this platform, is it opened the secret for how social media works around the globe. You look at the examples of Brazil and India, both have different needs and Orkut showed what each wants in a social media platform. This allowed groups like Myspace, Facebook, and others to come in and provide the same style of community, but better. While Orkut did not last very long, it had a huge impact on social media as a whole. The long lost platform, as I will call it.
Your blog formatting is appealing with the bold text and images. From your post its obvious to see that the company started with great momentum and initially appealed to the crowd. But over time, they failed to evolve. Overall, I agree that brands should continuously seek news ways to connect with their audience.