Orkut's Losing Battle Against Facebook

Of late, there has been a lot of talk regarding the social networking war underway in India. For as long as most people will recall, Orkut was THE place to find your old friends, contacts and associates if you happened to be in India. Yes, there were the others like MySpace, Hi5 and the homegrown ones like Yaari.com and some really interesting ones like Hikut, which was an Orkut and Hi5 alternative for users who had these two sites blocked. Eventually, all of them seem to have outlived their fanciness and only the most appealing ones now survive and boast of an active and ever increasing user base.

Apart from Orkut and MySpace, other networks did not find a steady stream of active users. At about the same time, in the west, MySpace (the then world's largest social networking website) was battling it out with Facebook which was barely a blip on the radar in India. Orkut with its simple, uncluttered look and feel was the hot favorite in India and in Brazil where it still rules the roost by quite a margin. However, outside India, Facebook, MySpace, Hi5 and even Tagged boast of more users than Orkut.

Having said all that, as I type this, the social networking war in India has reached a tipping point when in the latest Alexa rankings, Facebook for the first time has been seen above Orkut. Orkut's Indian URL was seen languishing at the number 5 spot just behind Facebook not long ago. Orkut has, since then, regained its position and continues to enjoy its stint - but it might just be a matter of days when it will be eventually eclipsed. While this does not necessarily translate into more number of users being on Facebook, one thing that has been made exceptionally clear is that Indians are spending more time on Facebook than on Orkut.

If the current trend continues, it might not be long when Facebook eventually displaces Orkut from its coveted pedestal. Apart from usurping the most visited social networking website crown from Orkut Facebook is also aiming to be the biggest such site in India and its plans seem to be working. In the last month, Orkut has seen a constant drop in its visitors. Facebook on the other hand has been increasing its userbase exponentially. In fact, Facebook even has a nifty contacts import tool that lets you find your Orkut friends on Facebook. This tool did rake up a controversy after Orkut allegedly blocking the functionality. That however was refuted and all seems well now.

Ironically, Orkut is a product of Google and traditionally, Google has been a "market leader" in most of the things it is involved with - except for Chrome and Orkut we guess. However, Chrome is certainly growing - quite unlike Orkut which seems to be losing users by the second. The question is will Orkut ever rise from the mess it is in right now? Functionality wise, there seems to be nothing wrong with it - but new features

along with a new UI would be certainly welcome. There have been recent reports about a possible arrival of a "status update" tool for Orkut on the lines of Twitter as well. At this time, all these attempts might just not be enough to stop the Facebook juggernaut from rolling.

Do you think Google can do something dramatic and make Orkut attractive for users again? Or will it be Facebook all the way from now on? Leave us a comment.