Orkut was a social networking website named after its creator “ Orkut Buyukkokten “. If we talk about its founder aka creator, he was a Turkish software engineer and a former product manager at Google.
We will segregate the timeline of Orkut to let you know more interesting facts about your nostalgic favourite social website.
Try to put a little bit of strain in your mind to commemorate the Orkut. It must be in the minds of 80’s and 90’s kids actually. I was one of them. Lets begin with.
How it all started?
- As we mentioned earlier about the creator “ Orkut Buyukkokten “. He made effective use of 20% Google time to develop this free social networking website. Additionally, It became mandatory for the Google employees to dedicate their 20% spare time to their own projects. As a result, Orkut which was an independent project developed by Orkut. Buyukkokten made a Debut in January 24, 2004.
- At the time of Orkut launch, Marissa Mayer, the existing CEO of Yahoo was the product manager at that time and approved this project by naming it as “ Orkut “.
Popularity in countries :
- In 2008,India and Brazil were the two main countries with maximum number of visitors to this website. Due It is then decided by the Google that Orkut would be completely managed in Brazil, by Google Brazil.
- If we talk about the statistics, Brazil outnumbered the North Americans, there were about 4 million active Orkut users making it a unique position in Brazilian society. India was also emerging alike Brazil cause of the internet becoming available and affordable gradually. It was getting more stronger in 2007, when Orkut decided to roll out the website in Six different Indian languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu.
Facebook as a Rival :
Facebook came into existence a month after the Orkut. The spike phase of Orkut remained for good six years and then Facebook took an enormous powerful movement by the millions of users which eventually overtook the Orkut in September 2010. According to the reports, Facebook user base grew upto 24.3 millions as compared to Orkut’s 18.7 million.
Controversies :
- In Iran, Orkut was quite famous but due to some security issues and islamic ethical issues for dating and match making. It got banned.
- In 2006, United Arab Emirates also banned the Orkut due to some complaints against Orkut communities.
- Saudi Arabia also followed the footsteps of Iran and UAE and blocked access to Orkut.
- In 2005, a large number of racism cases reported into the police station. In a case, where a 20 year old guy accused of racism black Africans putting defamatory content on Orkut.
- On October 2006, the Bombay High court of India passed a notice to Google for allowing a hate campaign against India. The community named as “ We Hate India” carried a picture of indian National flag being burned and some anti-Indian content.
How it ended?
- On June 30, 2014, Google said goodbye to the Orkut. They allowed the users to escort their photos before the final shutdown of the Orkut profile, scraps, testimonials and community post until September 2016.
- Briefing in a blog, Engineer Director Paulo Golgher said “ Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world . Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut’s growth, we have decided to bid Orkut farewell. We will be focusing our energy and resources on making these other social platforms as amazing as possible for everyone who uses it. “
Finally it was the end of an era to the Orkut. Most of the teens may not know the Orkut but it would remain in our memories for the coming days we live.
Kindly tell us how much you miss Orkut if you have used it in the past. Share your experiences in the comment section. Good luck !