Orkut

Brazil's living room, built in a 20% project

Shut down
19902026

Orkut was Google's first social network, launched on 24 January 2004, ten days before Facebook. It became a national phenomenon in Brazil and India while staying invisible in the US. Facebook overtook it in Brazil in December 2011, and Google shut Orkut down on 30 September 2014.

Timeline

  1. 2004
  2. 24 January 2004 Launch
    Orkut launches, invite-only

    Ten days before Facebook.

  3. 2006
  4. October 2006 Feature
    Registration opens to everyone

    The invite system ends as Orkut cements its dominance in Brazil and India.

  5. 2008
  6. April 2008 Legal
    Accord with Brazilian prosecutors

    Google agrees to hand over data in illegal-content investigations after years of standoff.

  7. August 2008 Feature
    Management moves to Google Brazil

    Acknowledging where the users actually are.

  8. 2010
  9. 2010 Peak
    Dominant social network in Brazil and huge in India

    More than half of Brazilian internet users at the peak.

  10. 2011
  11. December 2011 Decline
    Facebook overtakes Orkut in Brazil

    comScore crossover; the core market is lost.

  12. 2014
  13. 30 June 2014 Shutdown announced
    Google announces Orkut's farewell

    Takeout exports offered; communities to be archived.

  14. 30 September 2014 Shutdown
    Orkut shuts down

    Google's first social network dies at ten.

Ownership

Google 2004–2014 Founded Built by Orkut Büyükkökten as a 20% project

Why it shut down

Official line: Google: "Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world. Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut's growth, we've decided... to bid Orkut farewell."

Our analysis: Orkut won Brazil and India by accident and lost them by neglect: Google ran it with a skeleton crew from Belo Horizonte while Facebook executed globally. When Facebook took Brazil in December 2011, the ending was written; Google+ just gave Google a reason to pull the plug.

History

An accidental empire

Turkish Google engineer Orkut Büyükkökten built Orkut as a 20% project, launched invite-only on 24 January 2004: ten days before Facebook. It flopped in the US almost immediately but detonated in Brazil, where "scraps" (public messages) and communities fit the culture perfectly; at its height more than half of Brazil's internet users were on it, and India was its second country. For most Brazilians of that generation, Orkut was the internet's social layer.

Neglected to death

Google never treated its accidental hit as strategic: development moved to a small Belo Horizonte team, spam and fake-profile plagues went unfixed, and features arrived years after competitors. Facebook opened its São Paulo office in 2011 and overtook Orkut in Brazil that December (comScore). With Google+ anointed as the company's social future, Google announced Orkut's end on 30 June 2014 and closed it on 30 September 2014, offering profile exports and archiving the public communities. Büyükkökten later tried to rebuild the magic with an app called Hello. Brazil moved on to Facebook and WhatsApp; the saudade remains.

Similar projects

MySpace A place for friends 2003–now Google+ The social network everyone was signed up to and nobody used 2011–2019 Digg The front page of the web, until v4 2004–2012 Friendster The social network that came first 2002–2015 Yahoo Answers The internet's strangest Q&A community 2005–2021 ICQ The messenger that gave you a number 1996–2024

Sources

  1. Google Finally Shuts Down Orkut, Its First Social Network Forbes 30 June 2014 [archived]
  2. Google Shuts Down its Orkut Social Network The Next Web 30 June 2014 [archived]

Last verified: 11 August 2026