We know so well that social networking sites seem to be taking over the world. Big social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are great places to connect with people and market a business. Millions of users are on both, and companies around the world have made the most of these sites. Wherever you go, you hear people asking others, “Are you on Facebook?” It’s like 6 grades from Kevin Bacon, just 6 grades from Kevin from your ninth grade math class.
Just when you thought that social media might have reached its maximum threshold, in Google’s footsteps with its latest project: Orkut. It’s a strange word, but it seems to be a serious competitor to the other social media websites. Orkut gained massive popularity in Latin America and Asia and is now making a splash in the United States. Google wants to make sure it becomes a giant at the core of social media. They want their slice of the cake. The number of Orkut followers in China and Japan has almost tripled in the past year to more than 11 million visitors a month.
Time will tell if Google’s Orkut can become as big as MySpace and Facebook in the US Google knows what it is doing and has proven to be a solid player in many of the big markets. If Google can find a way to offer more than the other social networking sites (a “better mousetrap” per se), they can participate.