Orkut
From IndiaSocial
Orkut is one of the most popular online social community owned and operated by Google Inc. It was launched in 2004 and it has seen incredible growth around the globe since then. It is focused on connecting people, building relationships and creating communities that engage users around common interests.
All users maintain a profile which has their basic credentials and their friends network. Anyone can browse through the profile and see how they are connected through the friend’s network. To join orkut, one can simply use their Google Account.
Although, Orkut has been less popular as compared to its competitors - Facebook and MySpace in United States, it has a huge user base in India and Brazil. Looking at the facts, on February 2010, 51.06% of Orkut’s users are from Brazil, followed with India with 20.04% and United States with 17.44%. The Alexa ranking of Orkut is 70th in the world and the website claims to have more than 100 million active users worldwide.
Key Statistics
| Age Group | Percentage of Users | |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 2010 | |
| 18-25 | 61.46% | 53.68% |
| 26-30 | 12.05% | 15.19% |
| 31-35 | 5.52% | 6.76% |
Reasons to Visit Orkut
| Interests | Percentage of Users | |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 2010 | |
| Friends | 61.46% | 53.68% |
| Dating | 12.05% | 15.19% |
| Activity Partners | 5.52% | 6.76% |
| Business Networking | 5.52% | 6.76% |
Recent Changes Introduced
- Faster : The user can see their favorite activities on the top of front page.This results in larger photos, faster navigation, more updates on top and makes it easy to access notifications.
- Linking to other Google properties : A small header provided at the top left of the page to access links Gmail, Google Map etc.
- One-stop Notifications : The “what’s new ” section at the homepage shows all notifications.The older notifications can be seen by clicking “Older”.
- Fast photo uploads and photo sharing
- Customized theme colors
- Video Chat
Other Popular Features:
- Photos of users can be uploaded with a caption associated with it.
- Videos can be added from YouTube or Google Video
- Polls can also be created for polling a community of users.
- Gtalk has been very well integrated with Orkut.The users can chat directly once they are logged in.
- Users can create their photo albums and upload pictures under them.
- The interface can be changed from a variety of theme library.Themes are available in Pakistan, India and Brazil.
- Groups can be created that can have friends divided into various categories.
- Also, each user can become fans of any of the friends in their list
- Orkut is available in 48 languages and has been localized for many countries.
