Update: On contacting google we got the following reply - “Our constant endeavor is to provide an enhanced online experience for Orkut users and we will continue to work towards it. However, we have nothing new to announce at this point in time.” GOOGLE SPOKESPERSON
Original Post: Twitter seems to have caught the imagination of one and all. Just a few hours ago we reported that twitter has tied up with airtel to provide sms updates for tweets in India. Now it seems the next flattery for twitter comes in the form of imitation by Orkut (which still is the largest social network in India).
First reported by Googlesystem blog the screenshot below showcases a yet to be released new UI screenshot of Orkut. This screenshot appeared on the home page of the brazil based site for Google Chrome downloads. It does certainly look like a new orkut is in the works and soon to be launched. As the screenshot shows it does look like a status update services will be the way Orkut would go as well.
It does say a lot on the success that Twitter is seeing globally and its forcing existing social networks to make changes to their features. Facebook did this by launching facebook lite now its time for Orkut to follow suit. We have contacted folks from orkut to know whether this layout would be launched anytime soon internationally or in India and we are awaiting their reply.
As per comscore report in August, Orkut’s unique visitors in India dipped by 800,000 within a month, from 16 million visitors in July to 15.2 million visitors in August. On the other hand, Facebook grew its unique visitors in India by 700,000, from 7.5 million visitors in July to 8.2 million visitors in August. (Check image below)
As the above statistic shows facebook is most certainly the next orkut as predicted by us in 2007. What remains to be seen is how twitter spoils their party in India. Whats your take? Do you think twitter is over rated?
