Then Facebook arrived, initially Orkut wasn't much affected, then the tide began to turn. By the time Orkut changed their entire look to mimic FB, you knew who was winning the war.
Now all the business related aspects aside, the real reason why FB won over Orkut was because of profile pics.
Most female junta on Orkut, would put up useless images like flowers, cartoons, cute babies etc as their profile pics but FB users would invariably put up their real pics.
Now one reason according to me for this change was, in FB the tagging process would allow anyone to upload a group photo and tag people. This would then make chics think that, what the hell, we're visible on some pics as it is, why not put up real photos on FB.
That is when the tide turned. All of a sudden you had everyone putting up their real pics on FB. Rarely would you find people with flowers or cute baby pics as their profile pics.
The one demographic that got totally bowled over by this feature was the 'letchers' who are a sub-category of the larger demographic of the 'perverts'. Any commercial venture has to win over this particular demographic if it wants to capture a market. Especially when it comes to utterly useless items like social networking sites (like Facebook) or deodorants (like Axe).
Earlier a pervert had to go through a lot of effort to get a good look at his favorite hot chic, now all one needed to do was go to Facebook, hope for some common friends and a not-too-protected profile and that's it. That is when Orkut went into life support and finally passed away sometime last year.
In a few years if you mention the word Orkut, people may think it was some extinct bird closely resembling an Ostrich. But at one time, it was the most frequently visited site for most college going folks. There may come a time, when I write a similar article on Facebook, but that would happen only if FB forgets its most loyal demographic - the loyal, humble pervert!
