Everyone has heard of the Ford Motor Company, but virtually nobody remembers that the Cleveland Hardware and Forging Company was once a major producer of wagons and carriages. As the Ford Motor Company made technologically superior means of transportation than the once popular horse-drawn alternatives, Ford overtook and surpassed its technologically inferior competitors. The social media platform Orkut is the Cleveland Hardware and Forging Company of the social media industry. Orkut was a major industry leader and collapsed to its technolocially superior competitor, Facebook, in 2014.
Orkut was a market leader for seven years, reaching its peak in 2012 with 30 million users. Orkut was a subsidiary of Google, and many were attracted to the platform by Google’s reputation. Alas, Google has floundered on the social media front. Google+ failed in early 2019. A few of the things Orkut did right, but were not valued by subsequent social media apps, is the focus on account privacy, an invitation-only culture that led to prestige in being an Orkut user, and the ability to rate other users in intangible areas like how sexy, cool, and trustworthy they were. Orkut succeeded in Brazil for a variety of reasons. Since Brazil bans outdoor advertising, Orkut became a way for Brazilians to find places and products. Unfortuanely, Orkut did a poor job with video interfacing causing users to look to other places for product recommendations and social expression.
Pachal Debbarma attributes Orkut’s failure to not being able to provide the same level of features as Facebook, which was Orkut’s nearest rival. Orkut used an older, more clunky and slow architecture. Orkut was more privacy-minded not allowing users to anonymously view other user’s content. Orkut was not as visually appealing nor as interactive as rival Facebook. Orkut did not provide online gaming as part of its platform, as did Facebook. And, Orkut was not business-friendly, not allowing businesses to have their own business-oriented pages.
The proverb, “If you want to be successful, build a better mouse trap,” is true in the transportation industry and in the social media realm. Overall, Facebook provided a more relevant platform than Orkut. Users voted by changing platforms. Facebook certainly has annoying features, like the targeted advertising. Purchase a baby stroller on Amazon and one is subjected to weeks of baby stroller ads on Facebook. Facebook hasn’t quite figured out that once the item is purchased the horse is out of the barn. No need to advertise for a major purchase couples typically do only once. I don’t like them spying on my online activities for the purpose of ad targeting. I don’t like Facebook’s posting algorithm. I don’t like the same post popping up every two minutes in my feed. I can’t wait for another social media platform to overtake Facebook making it obsolete. It’s a platform I begrudgingly use, but I love to hate. Let’s go tech industry. The world needs a better social media app. Facebook, like Orkut, is just a horse and buggy.
References
Cleveland Hardware. (2019) Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Retrieved from https://case.edu/ech/articles/c/cleveland-hardware
Debbarma, Pachal. (2016, August 9) “Case study : Reasons why Google’s Orkut failed after Facebook was launched. Also know what Orkut’s founder is doing recently to start up again.” http://www.medium.com. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@PachaelPhillip/case-study-reasons-why-googles-orkut-failed-after-facebook-was-launched-92dd8a7abf0
Mahoney, L. Meghan and Tang Tang. (2017) Strategic Social Media: From Marketing to Social Change. Chichester, West Sussex, UK.ess
Stephen J. Forrest, Author 
Hi Stephen! The title of your blog really intrigued me and made me want to hear what you had to say in your blog! The comparison you started with was very interesting and different.
Orkut had a successful Action Plan, but they were also missing some steps. They successfully reached their goals to bring people together, connecting them through an online community. Their target audience was mainly found in Brazil, like you bring up, specifically with technology workers and students. They should have, however, focused more on their wants and needs in order to understand that this market needed video interfacing. Then, the audience would have ever left the platform to find recommendations elsewhere, as you bring up.
They knew their Social Media Choice and seemed very similar to Facebook, but I agree they did not have as many features. Both allowed users to find communities and keep up with the lives of friends/family. One could find classmates through online school communities and friends through residential street groups. Orkut had features you discussed that are similar to Facebook with invitation-only and rating others as a success for Orkut, although Facebook was a little different. However, for both platforms, these factors made it fun and made people want to use the app and come back for more. Orkut should have researched their audiences wants and needs like Facebook did in order to make the proper improvements. They would have been able to become visually appealing, add games, and create a business page option. Their major competitive advantage would be their resource in the action plan to be owned and operated by Google. In addition to that, their focus on policies helped them a little. Like you say they successfully focused on privacy, especially with Social Media being so new at the time, many people were concerned with privacy.
However, as we can both agree, they failed to monitor the platforms and make an activity plan. Orkut monitored user’s recommendations on products/services through community memberships, although, to add to what you brought up, they did not monitor their functions that got blocked, they limited the number of friends one can have, and their were issues with loading/sharing photos. Overall, their activity plan failed because they did not know where to go next with their plan and could not satisfy their audience the way Facebook did.
Overall, I enjoyed your blog and liked how you compared Facebook and Orkut in our blog. It helped me to understand a successful platform compared to an unsuccessful platform, and see where Orkut went wrong and what Facebook did that Orkut should have also done. I also like how you added things Facebook could improve on because I also find the targeted advertising annoying when I’ve already completed my purchase and the product is no longer relevant to me. It would be interesting to see if Facebook fails one day and a new app takes over. For me I moved on from Facebook and use Instagram way more. Although, I believe it is going to be a long time before Facebook dies.
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