Case Study: Orkut

Are you familiar with the social media platform Orkut? Probably not….

Orkut was Googles first social networking platform. It launched in 2004 and lasted for about 10 years before shutting down in 2014.  This particular platform was most popular among its Brazilian users as research showed that 90% of the page views were accessed by users in Brazil. This is a staggering number considering just how many members they had. Within 4 months they had 50,000 communities and after just one year this grew to about 1.5 million.

Orkut used a community style structure – how did this attract the changing role of the digital consumer?

There are several ways that Orkut was able to speak to these people. Below are just a few:

• The platform was community based so they could find people with like minded interests and ideas
• It let users connect with people they knew as well as people they looked up to
• It has an invite only membership which made it feel prestigious
• The interface was user friendly

Another reason as to why this attractive platform for digital consumers was so popular amongst the Brazilian population is because of Brazil’s strong online presence. They are ranked as one of the strongest markets for online retailers and fifth largest online market in the world.

Knowing and understanding how to make a proper marketing action plan is critical in having a successful business venture. The steps needed for this plan include the following items laid out below. Which do you think Orkut succeeded in and which do you think they fell short?

1. Goals
2. Target audience
3. Social media choice
4. Resources
5. Policies
6. Monitoring
7. Activity Plan

Where Orkut succeeded in this list is through steps one through 5. They had clear goals, and established target audience, their social media choice was their own platform, they were able to find and use good resources and had established policies. This is what allowed them to grow so quickly and become such a favored platform in Brazil.

Now its important to look at where they fell short. What is most important to you when using social media platforms?

Orkut clearly showed they were able to successfully use a marketing action plan but they did fall short in some key areas as discussed. One of the most important areas they seemingly did not perform well was in the monitoring of the platform. When you use social media aren’t you looking for the platform to evolve with what is trending? Orkut unfortunately failed at doing so. They attracted a large number of consumers early on but then fell short in continuing to satisfy their demands. Through research it was determined that Brazilians are attracted to platforms with online video. This is something that was not easy to do with Orkut. Had they paid attention to the changes of interest in their target audience and addressed this would they still be around today? Had they had a detailed activity plan in place allowing them to really establish a timeline for monitoring their performance would people have stayed interested? It makes you wonder where other platforms such as Facebook would be today.

Mahoney, L. M., & Tang, T. (2017). Strategic Social Media: From Marketing to Social Change. Malden: Wiley Blackwell.