Orkut user base falls 86% in one year

Once the darling of India's social media crowd, Google's Orkut has seen the numbers of its daily visitors dwindle nearly 86% over the last year, suggesting that it might soon be on its last legs.

Orkut, which was Google's first foray into social media, has its second-largest user base in India after Brazil. But the number of daily visitors from India has fallen from about 14 lakh a year ago to just about two lakh now, according to Google Trends.

Most social media junkies in India, which has over 120 million internet users, have moved on to rival Facebook, professional networking site LinkedIn and micro-blogging site Twitter. Also choking Orkut is Google Plus, the internet search company's fresh attempt to wean users away from Facebook.

But Google said it will continue to invest in Orkut. "Orkut has a large user base, especially in Brazil and India, and we will continue to invest in the product," a Google India spokeswoman said in an email response to ET. She said Orkut and Google Plus are different products and that both will exist.

"Users shifted from Orkut to other networks because of its closed platform approach-a contrast to Facebook which opened itself up to apps and businesses" said Yogesh Bansal, founder of Apnacircle.com, a home-grown social network that boasts about three million users. "The shift of western world to Facebook clearly led to a change in Indian user's habits," said Bansal who moved to Facebook after getting 'friend requests' from relatives in the United States and Canada.

India now accounts for about 20% of Orkut's users. Over the past three years, Orkut has seen its position as the top social media website in India slip. It is now third-Facebook has over 52 million unique visitors every month, LinkedIn eight million and Orkut about four million. Microblogging site Twitter comes next with slightly lower 3.8 million users, according to internet data research firm Comscore.

"Clearly, Google has chosen not to invest too much time, effort or resources into Orkut because all their efforts for social are now fully focused fully on Google Plus," said Adhvith Dhuddu, founder & CEO at AliveNow, a Bangalore-based social media firm. "My guess is that Google will just let Orkut be what it is."