Technology has touched our lives in many ways and one of the most wonderful technological innovations has been social networking sites. These days if you are not on Facebook, Orkut or MySpace or any of these sites you run the risk of being called 'anti-social'! Surprising as it may seem, for a country like India where internet penetration is not as high as some of the western countries, people warmed up to social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, hi5, LinkedIn, Twitter and Buzz pretty well.
Globally, Facebook has been ruling the roost in the social networking space. However, as in most cases the scenario in the Asia-Pacific market has been relatively different compared to the western countries. In fact, social networking dynamics in the Asia-Pac region exhibit significantly more individual market differentiation than in other global regions. This fact has been corroborated by comScore, who in an Asia-Pac focussed April 2010 report revealed that of the 50.8 percent (or around 240.3 million visitors) social media site users in February 2010, a majority of visitors from individual markets preferred Facebook; while competitive brands like Orkut, Mixi.jp, CyWorld and Wretch.cc commanded top position is markets like India, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan respectively.
In India, Orkut has been holding the pole position for a while now. In February, it was reported by comScore that Orkut holds approximately 46.8 percent market in India. However, Facebook has been slowly eating away at Orkut’s market share. Interestingly, the marketing research company found that Facebook dominates the social networking landscape globally however in India and Brazil, it is Orkut which has more popularity. The times are changing now, and Orkut is suddenly facing the heat even in India. Orkut, owned by internet search behemoth Google, is losing considerable market share in India with every passing day. According to Google Trends (a site that compares daily web traffic), Facebook has been growing its number of visitors, while Orkut is heading in the opposite direction. Social media site visitors across states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Punjab and Gujarat are using Facebook more than Orkut. Madhya Pradesh is the only state among the top ten states ranked by Google Trends where the battle is more on even terms. However, It’s not just Facebook that is causing concern for Orkut, it is also facing serious threats from micro-blogging sites like Twitter (irrespective of the irreparable damage it has caused to the reputation of some influential people, its popularity in India is growing).
The question then arises, “why is Orkut suddenly under pressure? The answer is simple – “innovation”. With Orkut, Google missed a trick, especially in India, and ended up forfeiting its huge market share. At a time when Orkut should have been proactive and ideated innovative technology to engage users, it adopted a more reactive approach. The result is there for everyone to see. Facebook, on the other hand, started off slowly. Initially, its interface portrayed the perception of being less user-friendly; however once users started adapting to the new technology, there was no looking back for the network. At a time when Facebook engaged users with innovative games like Mafia Wars, Farmville, FishVille etc, Orkut was vying for eyeballs with its archaic online games. Facebook’s basic service of photo-sharing also was much attractive compared to Orkut. Though Orkut has been making an attempt to lure users back to its network, by making certain changes on its platform, it seems like a classic case of too-little-too-late. Since Facebook has already used these innovations, Orkut is reduced to a mere ‘me too’ brand. All this underlines the fact that innovation in business is key to survival and Orkut has found this out the hard way.
Orkut joins Wave and Buzz in the list of Google’s failed social networking ventures. Media reports suggest that Google is now planning to launch another social media venture called ‘Google Me’ which is expected to bring back the glory days for Google in the social networking space. Some have even gone ahead and termed this service as a ‘Facebook killer’. Only time will tell how things will pan out but Orkut has reminded us of an important business necessity – Innovation.
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