Brand Orkut
Imagine a social system with a new kid-on-the-bloc. He has a new style with new things to say. People love the style. This builds his popularity. But, once his secret is out, many people copy his style and in fact do a better job of it. This is the story of Orkut.
True. Orkut brought social media to the masses. It paved way for a whole new world of possibilities. For a very long time it enjoyed the first movers’ advantage. But down the line, the image was lost. It became a platform for random comments.
Orkut had no strong bodies swearing by it.
Brand Facebook
A fun place. Here, you learn, read, share, have fun, begin a conversation, discuss, play games, voice your opinion, and more. It gives you more control. This is your page and you can control it by taking customisation a step higher than orkut.
New Orkut vs Facebook 
Where Orkut really missed out was in commercialisation. However great the product may be, if you dont have strong influencers, it just wont work. Individuals can be influencers only to a certain extent. For a product like a social networking site, strong corporations can be influencers. This is where Facebook scored over Orkut. Corporations like Vodafone with their Zoozoo fan page acted as very strong influencers.
On the design aspect, it looks like they have tried hard to copy facebook. A very bad attempt though. There is a complete lack of smoothness and its not user friendly. It looks cluttered and very amateurish.
There is a lot of hype around the new Orkut, but I still see the same crowd hanging around there. Facebook people are staying put. The initial curiosity phase is over.
My vote definitely goes for Facebook. What about you?
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Orkut tried hard to cater to the creamy layer and failed. There is something about its design which makes it clumsy. May be it is the Profile color tab or the friends/community list which occupy bulk of the screen space
Facebook will continue to cater to the creamy layer and Orkut to the rest!
My friend once said: Facebook is for intellectuals.
Orkut should not try to copy facebook. It should maintain it’s originality. It is losing users to facebook because of it’s copycat technologies.
I’ve always been a facebook loyalist. Love it. I’ve always hated Orkut and continue to do so. I registered on Orkut for the first time in Oct-Nov 2006…in less than 6 months around March-April ’07 I deleted my account. I never really liked it. Never bought the concept of letting people read your scraps and bitch about your conversations (especially a guy-girl convo.). The privacy settings are available now, but back thn wasn’t the case.
And one of the most important point here is…as you said “…I still see the same crowd hanging around there. Facebook people are staying put.” Orkut is for the loosers/desperados and filthy idiots who want to do “fraandsheep” with a cool chick and brag about in it in their college that they have a very “hip” online friend (given the face he is unable to make a meaningful conversation to a girl in real life).
FACEBOOK – “like” button…
ORKUT – throw a sheep at you (if it knows what I mean)
you are very much right on orkut revolutionizing the social mass while facebook making the most of it
I got to know a number of friends whom I wasn’t in touch since schooldays on orkut. But later on the interest faded since there wasn’t anything new. On the other hand facebook made the most of this drawback in orkut. Now i m more towards facebook than orkut 
First time here.. got to know you through Indiblogger! Will be frequent here going forward.
I don’t think Orkut(the guy the site is eponymous for) was the one who brought social media to the masses. Both Orkut and Facebook started in 2004 with limited audience (By invitation only and Harvard dorm). Despite mySpace & Friendster Orkut flourished and then lost crowd. In 2006-07 it became big in Brazil and India. So Orkut was not the trailblazer..
On why Orkut lost it’s edge while FB is gaining ground, IMHO it is not the corporate backing. A crappy product cannot sell even if by google. Google slept, FB did not and continually improved. Simple as that. 4 -5 years after launch Orkut is still beta ? why ? Google is complacent and is paying for it’s follies ; just like wordpress is eating away blogger-blogspot market share.
Bottom line : Good products sell. Orkut’s new design is lipstick on a pig ..