Orkut, a social networking service founded by Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten, was launched in 2004 and quickly gained popularity, surpassing 1 million users in just six months. However, it faced declining usage in favor of Facebook, especially in India, while maintaining a strong user base in Brazil until its eventual decline. Despite attempts to innovate with new features, Orkut could not compete with Facebook, leading to its reduced user base and eventual shutdown.

1. Started in 2002 and officially launched in 2004, Orkut was a side
initiative of Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten
Founded: 24th Jan 2004
Founder: Orkut
Büyükkökten
Type: Social Networking
service
Crosses 1 million
users in 6 months
Crosses 2million
users in Sep 2005
Declared 2nd largest
social networking site
after My space
Launch of Google+
120M strong, enters
mature stage, FB is a
close rival
In its growing stage
catches the eyes of the
country which will be its
2nd most popular, India
Explosion of local social
networking site in India
Facebook adds local Indian
languages. The fight for
dominance becomes apparent
FB popular.
Yahoo shows
interest in FB
Orkut’s Life Cycle
Orkut loosing India to FB
but still the king in Brazil
Multiple sites come & go
Loose grounds to its
earnest rival Fb.. and
hence begins the
decline stage
Old friends and well
wishers gather for
last good byes
Orkut tries to innovate and
add multiple new features
like apps and games but fails
and continuously looses
people to FB
User base around 66M.
Popularity spike due to
linkage with Google+
thru badges.
0.91 Billion
2.93 Billion
Global Internet users growth
FB users: 1.5B+
*Trend data is taken from Google trends search term of “Orkut”. Other insights have been collected from various sources and articles
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/nikhil-gupta/5/781/442