If you ask most American social media users about Orkut, there’s a good chance they’re not going to know what you’re talking about. However, for about ten years, Orkut was a popular and massively influential social media platform in Brazil that offered numerous lessons that helped to shape the modern social media landscape.

Orkut started out in 2004, and was run by Google. The platform was most popular among people in the tech field and college students, with a strong focus on the tech world. Orkut was oddly exclusive, requiring users to receive an invitation to register, but that didn’t prevent user numbers from ballooning to 30 million users at its peak.

Orkut was based around communities. Users could establish their own communities, based on schools, jobs, and just about anything else that could unite and create a community. These communities were so popular that it took only four months for the platform to amass over 50,000 of them. Orkut steered into the community aspect, not only promoting it, but literally turning the platform into a popularity contest to encourage further connection.

However, Orkut was relatively short-lived compared to many other social media platforms. It might seem like the platform’s relatively niche market in Brazil could be to blame, but Brazil is actually one of the strongest markets for both social media and digital advertising. Instead, Orkut’s downfall came due to the platform’s failure to adapt.

As social platforms evolved, Orkut remained static, relying on its once-innovative community features, rather than expanding to include modern social media staples, like video and image sharing. Orkut was also seriously lacking in key modern functionality, with odd artificial limitations on the amount of friends users could add.

Despite its rather undignified end, Orkut did have an impact on the social media landscape, namely through its focus on community and connections. Other platforms have implemented features to build these communities, either formally or informally. Facebook’s Groups feature is a fantastic example of formalized communities that has grown and adapted to fit a whole range of needs. Platforms like Instagram, Twitter/X, and TikTok has a more informal approach through the use of hashtags. Even still, these communities are clearly defined, with their own trends, influencers, and etiquette.

For authors, this all probably seems like a lot of nonsense, but there’s a few clear lessons to take away from Orkut’s rise and fall. The first – and probably most obvious – is the importance of community. Authors can engineer their own communities through social media in a number of ways. Hashtags are an excellent way to do this. Bookstagram and Booktok are clear examples of hashtag-based communities that most authors are already familiar with. There’s no reason that an author can’t make up their own hashtag to refer to their own books, allowing fans of their writing to easily find each other on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. They can also use Facebook Groups to create a more formal place for fans to congregate. Even platforms like Discord offer a promising way for authors to create a community of readers.

Then, there’s the lesson to take away from Orkut’s downfall: adaptability. While it’s a bad idea to write to trends, it is a good idea to listen to your readers and what they’re looking for. Pay attention to the content they’re engaging with on social media, and use it as an opportunity to gain insights into what is and isn’t working. If readers are looking for you to engage in a certain way or on a certain platform, be there. You’re not going to win anyone over by digging in your heels and hoping they come to you. Just like what happened with Orkut, the world will keep moving, and you will find yourself left in the dust.

Mahoney, L. M., & Tang, T. (2016). Strategic social media : From marketing to social change. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.