Orkut Helped Sites Such as Facebook become the Giants That They Are

It might sound dramatic, but social media is taking over all of our lives. Many of us have now have an inclination to check our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts on a regular basis. You only have to walk down the street and you will see everybody glued to their mobiles, undoubtedly on a social media account.

A Social Media Site That We Have All Forgotten

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If you walked out into the street and asked a random person whether they have heard of Orkut, they are most likely going to turn around and ask you what it is. They might even go as far as asking you whether it is some type of animal.

Well, it was actually a social media site that was created by Google in 2004 and dissolved in 2014. Google’s main aim when they created this social media platform was to give people all over the world a chance to stay in touch with friends and relatives and to meet new people and hopefully make new friends.

It never became a global phenomenon though, only having around 100 million subscribers at its peak. It was more popular in India and Brazil than it was in America and Europe. However, despite the fact that it never really got going, it is safe to say that Orkut had a huge influence on the social media platforms that are highly popular today.

Orkut’s Influence on Social Media Giants Such as Facebook

Let us take a look at the main features that Orkut provided its users with:

  • The ability to add friends
  • The ability to send private messages to people
  • The ability to post videos and photos on your profile
  • The option to like what other people are doing
  • The option to create community polls
  • The option of rating your friends and becoming a fan of each other

Now, let us take a closer look at the main features that social media giants Facebook provide their users with:

  • The ability to add friends
  • The option of sending private messages to people
  • The ability to post photos and videos on your profile
  • The ability to update your status
  • The option of liking the activities and statuses that your friends submit
  • The ability to share life events

So, as you can see, the main features of the two are practically the same, so it is clear that Orkut had a huge influence on social media sites such as Facebook.

Why Has Facebook Succeeded and Orkut Failed?

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Well, it is because Facebook took all of the best features of Orkut and then made them much better.

For example, Facebook added a notification feature that enables its users to check all recent activity at the same time without the need to visit different profiles and posts. Also, Facebook users can go on other people’s profile safe in the knowledge that the person will not find out. This was not the case with Orkut as you could see who had paid a visit to your profile. Furthermore, Orkut wasn’t business friendly while Facebook definitely is. To add to all of this, Facebook is more visually appealing than Orkut was, and it is a lot more user friendly.

Orkut gave social media sites such as Facebook the chance to see what people liked and, when they had all this knowledge in hand, they were able to improve on it and become the Social Media giants that they are today. Nowadays, Facebook has a whopping 2.45 billion users.

The founder Mr "Orkut" himself paid a tribute to what he and his team had originally created and left a heartfelt message on his site orkut.com/index.html.

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