orkut term paper
TRANSCRIPT
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Why Indians Love Orkut?
Consumer Behavior
Term Paper
On
Why Indians Love Orkut?
By
Menta Sravan PGP/10/14
For Prof. Anand Unnithan
Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
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6 August, 2007
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction 3
2. Features of Orkut 5
3. My Experience With Orkut 9
4. Why Is Brazil Hooked To Orkut? 10
5. Why Is India Fascinated With Orkut? 11
6. Conclustion 16
2
References 17
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1. Introduction
Social Networking
A social network is a structure that is built by relationships such as friendships, ideas,
kinship, trade, sexual relations, values etc. The first social networking website was
Classmates introduced in 1995. The internet space saw the entry of several social
networking websites in the next few years. Social networking on web became extremely
powerful phenomenon when MySpace began to receive more page views than Google.
There are over 200 social networking websites available on internet today. The model
works is very similar in most social networking website, a set of initial users send invites to
their personal friends to join the website. The new members repeat the process and the
network grows over a period of time. Social networking websites is not just about
interacting with people living far-away, many of the discussions and chats are with people
who live and work near-by.
Background
Orkut is a social networking website launched by Google on 17 November 2002. It was
the brainchild of Orkut Buyukkokten a Turkish software engineer. He developed it as anindependent project while working at Google. Orkut originally was elite as one could join
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the group only by invitation. However since October 2006, Orkut permits joining without
invitation. Orkut has become a phenomenon which has caught the fancy of a large number
of people across the globe. Within 18 months of launch, Orkut membership surpassed
1million. By September 2004, the number of members increased to 2 million and the total
number of members using Orkut as on date is over 60 million.
Orkut took Brazil and India by a wave. The popularity of the website in these two
countries is unusually much higher compared to the usage of MySpace, Friendster, LinkedIn
and HiFi.
Methodology Of Paper
To understand Orkut and its phenomenon better, I have read several blogs and articles on
the website. I have interviewed several friends of mine regarding their usage and the
reasons behind Orkuts popularity.
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2. Features of Orkut
Orkut offers several features which makes it different from other social networking
websites.
How does one join orkut? - A user joins Orkut by creating his profile with personal
details, hobbies, interests, photo etc. A user has the option to decide the visibility of the
details according to the following classifications Friends, Friends of Friends, & Everyone.
Adding Friends Once a member joins Orkut he can begin friends to his list. The number
keeps growing when one receives add invitation from others. Orkut with its mutual friends,
communities and search options helps a member find old friends on the web easily.
Scrapping Scrapping a feature which has become the lifeline of Orkut and in many
ways behind its phenomenal growth in membership. Scrapping allows a user to leave
offline messages for a friend. The speciality of scraps is everybody who visits the users
profile can read the scraps written by others for the user.
Communities There are over a million communities on Orkut which bring users with
mutual interests together. Users can ask questions, post events, conduct polls, and play
games. There communities almost on everything from coffee to vadapav, roses to tulips,
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cats to dogs etc. Users can add themselves to the various communities available on Orkut
to express their interests and affinities. Indians find a special mention for the thousands of
communities dedicated to film stars, which range from superstar to powerstar, I love
Raveen to I hate Ekta etc.
Testimonials Users can write testimonials for their friends which can be viewed by
everybody visiting the users profile. Testimonials are great medium to get know a new
friend on Orkut.
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Birthdays The upcoming birthdays of friends are available on the Users main page.
This has become a popular tool for tracking birthdays and wishing friends. The need for
keeping a separate birthday reminder is eliminated for regular Orkut users.
Photos & Videos Users can upload photos and videos which are available for all
visitors to the users profile. This section has become extremely popular for members to
display snaps and moments from their current happening to friends.
Open Forum Unlike MySpace in Orkut one can view the profiles of users not available
on his network. This has been one of the key drivers of Orkuts popularity.
Profile Count Profile count on the main page helps one know how many people visitedthe webpage. The count is provided for previous day, week, month and till date.
Crush List One can add friends as crushes and the same would be known to both of
them if they have both added each other as crushes.
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Fans One can add himself/herself as a fan to his/her friends. Members can also rate
their friends as cool, sexy and trustworthy. As can be seen below Jayesh has 79 fans and
also has ratings of trustworthy, cool and sexy by friends.
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3. My Experience With Orkut
I first joined Orkut in October 2003. However I did not explore the website beyond
accepting the invitation. The website was becoming extremely popular among my friends
and colleagues. I finally began using Orkut in June 2005 and began adding friends
rapidly. I began scrapping heavily and was becoming addicted to the Orkut culture. It
was a nice experience tracking old friends and reading about their current lives in their
scrap books. One can get a quick update of old friends in a short time by going through
their scrap book, communities and photos. These were the features that had me tied to the
website for a long time. I spend long hours tracking down old friends, scrapping and
reading their scrapbooks.
However as my schedule became hectice my usage of Orkut began to drop. The tracking
of old friends and replying to scraps immediately were no longer a priority. I was not
taking time out of schedule to find out what my friends were up to on Orkut. Today I log
into Orkut once in 10 days and just reply to the few scraps. I hardly venture beyond my
scrap book. My scrap count, friends count, and fans all move at a snails pace.
However many friends around me continue to be heavily addicted to Orkut. I know many
who would be having very limited free time continue to spend an inordinate amount oftime on Orkut. Unusually Orkut has become extremely popular in Brazil and India. Brazil
was the first nation to be totally fascinated with Orkut. Intial Orkut users used to receive
numerous friend invitations from strangers belonging to Brazil. India was the other nation
that flooded Orkut with members. What fascinated the people in these two countries living
so far-apart?
What keeps the novelty of Orkut going after several months of scrapping? What makes
people come back to Orkut after a days work? What does Orkut offer for keeping intouch with friends which email/chat does not offer? Does Orkut pander to some deep
seated desires in the online world not available in the real world? Does active social life
on Orkut compensate for lack-luster life in real world? Does Orkut scrap count, friend
count, fans and testimonials build social confidence?
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4. Why Is Brazil Hooked To Orkut?
Orkut growth is well characterized by its astounding popularity among Brazilians. There
are over 100, 000 Brazilians living in Japan who are connect through Orkut. Some of the
reasons which have been attributed for popularity of Orkut,
Community Orientation Brazilians are extremely community oriented and express their
identity through communities. Social networking in Orkut immediately caught on in Brazil
because of its relevance to their inherent values. There is more than a coolness factor
associated with social networking on Orkut.
Pre-qualifying Friends Brazilians who use Orkut belong to upper-echelon of the society.
They are wary to of inviting new friends to join their circle. Orkuts pre-qualifying allows
them to choose their friends.
Mobility Many Brazilians have been migrating in the last few years. Orkut helps them
keep in touch with their friends without mass mailers. A large number of Brazilians access
Orkut from cyber cafes. The access anytime anywhere added to the popularity in the
initial days.
Yakut - Orkut sounds like Yakult or iogurte (yogurt). Yakult is the Brazilian version of the
popular Japanese Yakult yogurt drink. Everyone drinks it in Brazil when theyre kids. There
is a totally unintentional instant association between the words Orkut, Iogurte and Yakut in
Brazil.
Pronunciation The name Orkut is extremely easy to pronounce in Portuguese. The same
is not applicable for names like MySpace and Friendster.com. These names lose their
meaning when translated to P ortuguese.
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Lack of Advertising The average Brazilians life is flooded with advertisements from bill
boards, advertisement, radio infomericials, cars with loudspeakers driving around
advertising etc. Orkuts zero advertisement is also one of the reasons for its growing
popularity.
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5. Why Is India Fascinated With Orkut?
In India the Orkut story began way back in 2003 and the popularity of the social
networking website grew at a phenomenal pace. Today India contributes 9% of Orkuts
total membership which translates into 6 million Indians connected through a single social
networking website. Orkut means different things to different people in India. However
the usage and popularity of Orkut can be grouped under few categories.
One of the prime reasons which people attribute for usage of Orkut is staying connected
with friends. The same can be achieved by gmail and gtalk also. However Orkut gives a
host of other features which makes it a more convenient tool compared to email &
messenger. The reasons for popularity of Orkut go beyond the obvious of social
networking with friends.
Stay Connected
Orkuts ability to track old friends and classmates makes it dear for most users. The built in
search facilities, communities and mutual friends list help users easily track friends. The
advantage of Orkut is one can leave offline messages for a friend. A chat message can
disturb a person at work and at the same time it is not convenient for composing emails for1 line messages. Orkut scraps are read at leisure without getting disturbed and easy to
message. Orkut keeps everybody connected no matter where they live or work. It doesnt
matter if a friend changes his mobile number or email address, all of it will be updated on
his/her profile. A message to All Orkut Friends with any news ensures it reaches their
current email addresses. Today we regularly receive wedding invitations sent to All Orkut
Friends with the words Please consider this as personal invitation.
Peek Into Others Lives
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Orkuts scrapbook feature is a public forum available for all users to read anothers
messages. A quick perusal of a friends scraps helps one get a first-hand update of the
current happening in his/her life. This ensures the message one leaves for a friend are
relevant. Many users wander through other peoples scrapbooks to ensure they are not
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missing out on the action in anybodys lives. Orkut has transformed the way people keep
in touch with everybodys lives. Another interesting psychological aspect being played out
is the curiosity a person has about the happenings in anothers life. Orkut helps by
allowing a peek into anothers life without too much effort.
One can regularly hear the conversations such as He is getting engaged, I saw it on the
scrapbook. I have myself been surprised so many times with such updates of old friends
and classmates. I recently learnt of an old friends wedding when I happened to visit his
scrapbook while wandering through Orkut. I immediately emailed him a congratulatory
note. This would not have been possible in the old days with just emails and messengers
which do not connect you to a friend absent on the contacts list.
The Social Space
Orkut is styled in a fashion ones profile can act as a social space on the web and as a
self styled blog. Many Indians would love to have their web-space on internet however do
not have the time or skills to maintain a blog. Orkut gives them an easy gateway to
achieve this goal by creating their profile on the website. Orkut with its features of About
Me, passions, interests, likes, dislikes, dream date, photos and videos helps a member
create a social identity of himself/herself on web. The bigger advantage of Orkut space
is its immediately available for all friends to view at regular intervals. A blog does not
offer this advantage as many friends and acquaintances would not even be aware of the
blogs existence.
Users spend considerable amount of time to update the profile with their current
happenings, photos and videos. Many change their profile picture regularly and some
even go the extent of renaming their profiles with current happening in their lives. One of
the blogs which I recently read had a humorous account of the typical desi profile onOrkut. My opinion about Indian Orkut profiles is not very different from the view
expressed by this writer. Here is a brief account of the humorous write-up from the blog,
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Status As Profile Name Indians love to express the latest happening in their lives by
renaming their profiles. It is common to find profile names like Shravan In Chicago...,
Job At SAPYippee... etc.
The 6 Photos Phenomena There are at least 6 photos displaying various aspects of ones
life. A photo of convocation/graduation (I am educated), a photo in a pub (I am modern),
a photo in traditional clothes at a temple (I am still Indian), a photo in a large group (I am
popular), a photo with opposite sex (I am straight) and a photo in west (Yes, I have
traveled abroad too).
Social Status
Orkut helps one project an active social life and network with the features such as friend
count, scrap count and fans. Many users of Orkut add friends randomly to increase theirfriend count. One can easily find members on Orkut with friends count over 500 and
above. It is not humanly possible to keep in touch with so many friends unless somebody
makes Orkut scrapping their livelihood. This wide-spread phenomenon can be attributed
to members desire to project a super popular image of themselves.
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WhyIndians Love
Orkut
SocialSpace
SocialStatus
StayingConnected
StayingConnected
Peek IntoOthers Lives
Gateway toSocial Life
Search forCompanion
CommunitiesRecruitment &Job Openings
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Large scrap counts are another fad among the regular users. Many aspire to be part of
the 5000+ scraps and 10000+ scraps clubs and indulge in daily scrapping targets to
sooner achieve the status. It makes one wonder why invest so much time in increasing scrap
counts if the objective of using Orkut is staying connected. A large scrap count in many
ways helps massage ones ego and assure one self he/she is popular among friends.
Fans is another feature of Orkut which people are extremely proud of in their profile. The
number of fans any member has is available to all users to see. Many Orkuters take up
great pains to increase their fan count. One of the most popular strategies adopted is to
add oneself to everybody in the friend list as a fan and hope they return the favor. I
know of a few friends who have asked me to return the favor. Also many have pointed
out to me the large number of fans they have on Orkut for no specific reason.
Gateway To Social Life
There many people who are extremely shy and subdued in real life but extremely active
on Orkut. A quick look at their scrap book would make you believe in the multiple
personality syndrome. Orkut is an easy gateway to alternate social life on the web by
quickly building up friends and a social identity. People can be extremely bold with their
own classmates and friends on Orkut with whom they are not able to in real life. Orkut
makes one forget their fallacies and build an image which they desire to display to the
society.
Search For Companion
Orkut is flooded with wannabe Indians who scrap women on Orkut requesting friendship.
The number of such people grows by the day on Orkut and has become a cause of
concern among women. There is another breed of women who take advantage of thisphenomenon by uploading photographs of good looking friends etc. Invariably they
receive large number of friend requests from men and the women accept all the invitations
to display an active social life. One of my friends pointed out three users using the same
photo in their profiles and with disproportionate number of men as friends.
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Fractionalization of Communities
Indians have a great affinity for communities and take great pride in belonging to various
communities. We should be given special credit for creation of thousands of communities
on Orkut. The communities originally were created for people with similar interests to
share their ideas and thoughts. However they have slow and steadily evolved into
fractionalization of communities such as
India Mumbai Thane Vasant Vihar Eden Woods
Today there are several hate communities on Orkut and they are growing by the day.
Something else which is becoming popular in communities is match making in caste
communities. A Konkani community for instance is flooded with posts regarding match
making and proposals. Many women have begun to unsubscribe from such communities to
avoid the unsolicited proposals.
Recruitment & Job Openings
Recruitment and job openings have slowly found their way into Orkut. With consultants
posting jobs among various communities of Orkut, many have begun to switch jobs through
this avenue. A recent Business Standard article featured regarding the growing usage of
social networking websites for recruitment and job openings. Some software communities
have membership of thousands of IT engineers, a single post can reach a wider target
audience than many advertisements and email chains.
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6. Conclusion
Orkut is great medium for staying connected with friends and is one of the most popular
social networking websites. However its usage and popularity can be attributed to
reasons beyond the obvious. Some of the underlying reasons have been explained in brief
in the paper however there might be many more to be explored in detail. Irrespective of
the reasons for popularity, one can concur Google has created a great application for
staying in touch with friends.
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References
1. Wikipedia Social Networking
2. Wikipedia Orkut
3. Future of Orkut by Social Community
4. Orkut Perils? By Punit Lodaya
5. Why Users Love Orkut by Gene Liebel
6. Why Brazil Loves Orkut by Loren Baker
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