Ghosts of Platforms Past: What Orkut's Rise and Fall Still Teaches Us About Social Media Strategy
Orkut was launched in 2004 by a Google engineer and quickly became Brazil’s leading social network. At its peak, an estimated 90% of Orkut’s traffic came from Brazilian users (Mahoney & Tang, 2016). Although the platform shut down in 2014, its rise, and eventual fall, still offers a lot of valuable lessons for marketers today.
Why Orkut Worked...At First
Orkut was simple, clean, and easy to use. It even let people rate their friends, kind of like MySpace’s Top 8, but with categories like “cool,” “trustworthy,” or “sexy.” It also gave users the ability to join interest-based communities and find people they knew from school or work, which feels a lot like what Facebook Groups and LinkedIn connections do today.
At a time when most social platforms were still figuring out what “social networking” really meant, Orkut gave users a place to not only connect but express their identity. Think of it as an early hybrid of Facebook, Reddit, and LinkedIn. Orkut had:
Personal profiles with photos and friend lists like Facebook,
Discussion boards and niche interest groups like Reddit,
And workplace, school, and location-based directories that functioned a bit like LinkedIn’s networking features.
Orkut also prioritized community over content. The value was more based on joining in and creating a sense of a shared space that’s hard to find on modern platforms, where algorithms prioritize visibility over relationships.
In Brazil especially, where traditional advertising methods like outdoor signage were limited (Holmes, 2013), Orkut became a central hub for connection, expression, and even local culture.
That idea of creating a branded social experience still matters. As Mahoney and Tang (2016) explain, social media marketing has to be more than just pushing out content. These platforms and the brands on them have to make people feel like they’re part of something, whether that’s a community, movement, or shared story.
Where It Fell Short
The biggest issue was that Orkut didn’t evolve. Facebook and other platforms kept updating their features, building ad tools, and adapting to mobile use. Orkut stayed the same. As the market shifted, it didn’t keep up.
And as Mahoney and Tang (2016) point out, staying still is a risk. Social media strategy isn’t something you can set and forget. It needs regular updates, listening to users, and a plan for how to scale or shift when things change.
Another issue was lack of integration. Orkut didn’t give brands, creators, or nonprofits enough tools to turn audience engagement into action. According to Paek et al. (2013), engagement matters most when it leads to real behavior, talking about an issue, sharing with others, or doing something offline. Orkut had active users, but didn’t build in many ways to turn that into outcomes.
What We Can Still Learn from Orkut
Even though Orkut is gone, its success and failure still offer a few important takeaways for brands:
Global platforms don’t always win just because they’re big. Orkut thrived in Brazil because it matched the country’s digital habits and needs.
Platforms, and brand strategies, have to grow with their users. If you’re not evolving, you’re falling behind.
Engagement is a step toward real-world behavior and the platform has to make that next step easy for the user.
If Orkut had paid closer attention to user behavior and feedback, it might have made the changes needed to survive.
I personally think that for marketers, Orkut should be looked at as a reminder that building a community isn’t enough. You also need strategy, flexibility, and a clear plan to keep delivering value over time. As Mahoney and Tang (2016) emphasize, the best social media strategies are those that fit into a bigger marketing approach and evolve alongside the people using them.
References
Mahoney, L. M., & Tang, T. (2016). Strategic Social Media: From Marketing to Social Change. Wiley Global Research (STMS). https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781118556900
Paek, H.-J., Hove, T., Jung, Y., & Cole, R. T. (2013). Engagement across three social media platforms: An exploratory study of a cause-related PR campaign. Public Relations Review, 39(5), 526–533. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2013.09.013
