In 2004, the social networking known as Orkut appeared. It was a creation of Google and was very similar to other social media we know today. The name of the social media was in reference to its creator. His name is Orkut Buyukkokten.

The social media was a success when it debuted: 50,000 to 1,500,000 communities in a year (Mahoney & Tan, 2017). There you have the ability to meet people and to rate each other depending on certain characteristics, such as how cool or trustworthy you are.

Brazil

When Orkut was created, Brazil had a strong online retail and marketing presence. So, a place where it was heavily used was in Brazil. But, Orkut was lacking some features. More access was needed for marketers wanting to campaign through videos. Orkut didn’t listen well enough to the customers and didn’t meet their needs either.

Audience

After recognizing how it failed, Orkut changed. But, it wasn’t enough. Despite being popular in Brazil, it lacked audience in other places. They disregarded the needs of the culture. Little by little, Orkut was losing its audience.

Debacle

There were functionality problems on the Orkut’s website too. Difficulties loading photos, and limiting friends were some of those problems.

Analysis of Orkut

Orkut created content that made the communities come together. They have memberships. But, it failed in reaching its target audience. It was popular in Brazil, but it didn’t grow enough to expand to other communities. So, they lost consumers. “Brazilians are especially responsive to brand strategies that include online video, something that was difficult through Orkut. As such, the demise of Orkut seemed to deal with functionality problems with the website, including blockages, limiting the number of friends, and difficulties in loading and sharing photos. When Orkut stopped meeting the needs of the culture and audiences, they lost their consumers and were eventually replaced by other culturally appropriate cross-platform social media endeavors (Mahoney & Tan, 2017).”

The digital consumers were interested in finding things according to their cultural needs. In the case of Orkut, the consumers wanted to find friends from school and people they admired. So, they were able to participate in this social media. But once Orkut stopped giving the consumers what they wanted, the consumers started abandoning Orkut. 

Brazil’s culture ranked as the fifth largest online market in the world. The nation also has a homegrown advertising market (Mahoney & Tan, 2017).

The advice I might lend businesses as a future social media strategy is listen to their customers, respond their questions and in that way, they are able not just to engage but create a solid brand. They create a positive reputation and keep customers.

References

Orkut – Hello (2020). Retrieved from:

http://www.orkut.com/index.html

Mahoney, T., & Tang, T. (2017). Strategic Social Media: From Marketing to Social Change.