RIP Orkut: Google to Shut Down Its First Social Network

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In this April 16, 2009, file photo, Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Image: Paul Sakuma/Associated Press

By Seth Fiegerman2014-06-30 15:42:33 UTC

Before there was Google+ or even Google Buzz, there was Orkut, Google's first social network.

Google launched Orkut in January 2004, after attempting to acquire Friendster, the hot social network of the time. Orkut gained some traction in Brazil, but never really caught on in the United States. The month after it launched, Facebook went online at Harvard and gradually came to dominate the social networking space.

See also: RIP: Every Product Ever Axed By Google

On Monday, Google announced that it plans to shut down Orkut on Sept. 30, after more than 10 years of service. Existing users will be able to export their information using Google Takeout, but new users are no longer able to create accounts.

Image: Screengrab, Internet Archive

"Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world," the Orkut team wrote in a blog post. "Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut's growth, we've decided to bid Orkut farewell (or, tchau). We'll be focusing our energy and resources on making these other social platforms as amazing as possible for everyone who uses them."

Orkut may mark Google's most obvious failed attempt at embracing social networks, but it's not the only one. Google tried again in 2010 with Buzz but shuttered that effort the following year.

The search giant has since focused on Google+, which recently celebrated its third birthday. That social network has arguably been more successful, but it recently lost its top executive and is often criticized for having lower engagement than rival social networks.

Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google and current executive chairman, has repeatedly admitted over the years that his biggest mistake running the company was missing out on social. “In our defense," he said in one interview late last year, "we were busy working on many other things but we should have been in that area and I take responsibility for that."

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Topics: Business, orkut