What is Orkut?
Orkut is a social networking site that was launched in 2004. Orkut is owned by Google and named after its creator, Orkut Büyükkökten, a Google employee. It was very popular in Brazil until Orkut was shut down in September 2014.
Orkut featured a clean and easy to use social networking site that allowed users to “find communities through keyword search, including titles, description, and browsing through other users’ memberships” establishing 1.5 million communities within a year of its launch. Users found interest in finding friends and classmates while joining online schools, residential street groups, and workplaces.
Features Provided by Orkut:
- Add friends
- Send scraps to people (Scrapbook) – These messages are visible to all.
- Send personal messages to each other
- Post videos
- Integrate G talk
- Option of liking each other`s activities
- Restricted and unrestricted community polls
- Customizing themes
- Becoming a fan of each other
- Rating your friends
How was Orkut successful in their Marketing Action Plan?
By engaging with their users and providing excitement Orkut was successful. For example, by having users rate their friends, by having a competitive part to the platform and providing a way for people to network with others was a few ways Orkut successfully engaged with users. Orkut expanded and engaged more with users by being associated with Google. In addition, the platform was easy to use and focused on privacy concerns of its users. It became very popular for technology workers and students to use. It allowed users to connect with not only people they knew interpersonally but people they admired.
In what areas did Orkut fall short?
Orkut stopped meeting the needs of the Brazilian culture and audiences, including difficulty in setting up online video and photo sharing as well as there being certain blockages and limitations on the number of friends’ users could have. Orkut also did not include some of the more technological advancements that are needed to keep up with a networking platform. This resulted in Orkut losing their Brazilian consumers and were replaced by other culturally social media platforms including Facebook.
Orkut’s Community Structure:
The community structure of Orkut spoke to the changing role of the digital consumer by being structured similar to other social networking sites. The purpose was for users to find communities through keyword search, including titles, description, and browsing through other users’ memberships. Orkut also provided different ways consumers could market themselves to friends and other consumers within the site. Orkut spoke to the exclusiveness of this role by having an invite-only list for memberships. This made the site connecting to users very well known in the technology realm.
Consumers are more interested in participating with these messages rather than a diffusion strategy, because consumers enjoyed working with this type of platform since it expressed the idea of being known within a small percentage of the world or culture. Many users and consumers also enjoy the idea of being rated amongst other known people for who is the most “sexy, cool and trustworthy” within their communities. Consumer felt pride in knowing they are considered amongst the “popular group” (Mahoney and Tang, 2016).
How does the Brazilian culture speak to the brand experience of organizations and communities on Orkut?
The Brazilian culture surrounding online marketing can speak to the brand experience of organizations through how popular the site is perceived to be by users. Since there is an importance placed within online marketing, the reviews and positive influencers of Orkut is the reflection of how the Brazilian culture perceives Orkut. With outdoor advertising being banned in the country, this has led to a surge of online marketing. In fact, 77% of Brazilian social media users have a positive attitude towards online shopping; four-fifths of them use social networking sites to research products; and social media users trust recommendations from online contacts more than other sources (Mahoney and Tang, 2016).
Summary
Advice I would lend to businesses about their future social media strategy would be to engage and listen to their consumers. By engaging and listening, your business will have a positive outlook as a whole. One of the reasons why Orkut fell short was due to the non-engagement Orkut lacked with its Brazilian consumers.
Social Media Explorer 
Hi Madeline,
I really enjoyed your blog and your perspective on how the Brazilian culture spoke to the brand experience of organizations and communities on Orkut. You focused on a great point with, “Since there is an importance placed within online marketing, the reviews and positive influencers of Orkut is the reflection of how the Brazilian culture perceives Orkut.” The Brazilian users really connected with the brand and the opportunities that Orkut brought to their country with their features. I would recommend adding some links to the Orkut brand because they have re-positioned themselves with the Orkut/Hello Network. You could add some social media links after your conclusion to their website, Twitter, and founds Instagram account. Thanks for sharing!
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Hi Madeline,
Great blog! Your post was very informative and easy to read. I especially loved your insights on how Orkut succeeded in their marketing action plan. I agree that engaging their users to interact with one another was a success. And adding in the competitive component appealed to those who wanted to obtain status and belong to elite communities. It was another way Orkut succeeded. I agree with you that they lost sight of their overall goal (meeting the needs of their users). The goal wasn’t about numbers but giving users a place to connect and create content. By failing to meet the customer demands and make their platform more integrated and flexible, the lost their users to their competitors. Orkut is definitely an example of how companies who do not monitor new technologies, user messages, or what competitors are offering, will fail to maintain a competitive edge.
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