Myspace is one of the most notorious platforms in social media history, and its success/demise still receives pop culture references in various movies and shows. 2010 was the last time I logged into Myspace. I remember thinking I was so cool because I could make my profile background sparkle and play music. I took quizzes and shared funny GIFs that reflected my personality. My high school life was an open book, and I recognize now that I cared way too much about what people thought. Social media was like the wild west, and many teenagers, like me, were trying to figure out how it fits into our lives. Although Myspace was wildly popular, it and many other social media platforms would inevitably fall to Facebook.
Myspace was not the only social media to fall prey to Facebook, and in 2014 Orkut was shut down by Google. You probably never heard of it because it was not as popular in the United States due to intense social media competition. But for almost a decade, Orkut was the dominant social media platform in Brazil and India. The video below covers the infamous day Google shut down Orkut.
The video mentions many of the platform’s shortcomings, like privacy and authentication issues but fails to talk about what made Orkut popular. The platform had a similar design to Myspace’s clean-cut website and allowed users to form communities by searching key phrases. The main difference between Orkut and Myspace was that users could not freely join but had to be invited to join by an existing member. The 18+ platform also encouraged users to rate each other publicly on “sexy, cool, and trustworthy” categories. The social media site was also the only one to implement a “crush” list. Similar to Myspace’s Top Friends feature, Orkut’s rating and crush system cultivate competition and a desire to join that expanded the site’s popularity. The site grew, and soon Brazil developed a unique culture around the platform.
“Orkut helped them organize themselves into communities, now known as “digital favelas”, discuss specific and local community-related issues or engage in broader debates of national importance, such as football, music and even express themselves freely on political issues”
(Ananth, 2014).
To understand the reason why Orkut was highly successful in Brazil and not in America, you must first understand the country’s context at the time. Brazilian culture holds a high affinity for digital and social media, and cell phones outnumber people (Mahoney et al., 2016). During Orkut’s release, Brazil’s middle class was barely emerging. Internet and technology were finally affordable enough for the general public, and digital media consumption grew outside of the home. Additionally, the ban on outdoor advertisements also fueled Brazil’s need for social media.
“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”
(Holmes, 2013)
Brazil had the perfect social and economic conditions for Orkut to thrive. However, the platform failed to adapt to its user’s needs over time. The ultimate demise for Orkut was in 2014, when users began to migrate to competitor sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These sites offered various privacy settings that allowed the user to control their audience. By contrast, Orkut’s high visibility meant anyone could see the user’s profile, and the only privacy setting was a block list. Over time the Orkut’s speed also worked against it and made it difficult to use. The increasing number of website redesigns overloaded the server and would cause incredibly slow loading times, frustrating many users. Orkut teaches us that to be successful, brands must listen to the customers. Orkut lost its audience to other platforms when it stopped meeting the cultural needs of its audience. Constantly evaluating and readjusting your brand to align with the target market is important to remain competitive and maintain long-term growth.
References
Ananth, V. (2014, September 30). The rise, fall, and subsequent death of Orkut. Mint. https://www.livemint.com/Consumer/zAYIirsyDYC2ZVcNxGkXcJ/The-rise-fall-and-subsequent-death-of-Orkut.html
Holmes, R. (2013). The future of social media? Forget about the U.S., look to Brazil. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2013/09/12/the-future-of-social-media-forget-about-the-u-s-look-to-brazil/
Mahoney, L. M., & Tang, T. (2016, September 15). Strategic Social Media: From Marketing to Social Change. [[VitalSource Bookshelf version]]. Retrieved from vbk://9781118556900
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