Though Orkut now has 15.5 million users compared to Facebook’s 10.4 million as of December, the Google site’s additions are at a sluggish 1.8% per month. Facebook is growing at 7.8% per month since July 2009.
Going by this trend, Facebook could well overtake Orkut in India in about seven months. The emergence of Gmail, Google’s mailing service, almost wiped out Hotmail, till then India’s most popular email service. Orkut might meet the same fate as Hotmail soon.
Orkut has reasons to worry as the country is a key part of its user base, forming 20% of the global traffic behind Brazil’s 50%. Brazil and India are also the only two markets where Orkut is dominant.
Facebook users have a simpler explanation for its stupendous growth: all friends and those who aren’t – brands, bands, TV shows and businesses — are on it.
Globally, Facebook reached 350 million active users, up 200 million in 12 months last year. And statistics from tracking site InsideFacebook.com demonstrate a strong start to 2010: another 23 million new users in January.
Still, a comparison of the user demography makes for some interesting data for marketers. About 5% of Facebook users from India falls in the Rs 7-10 lakh annual income bracket while Orkut has a negligible population here. There are more women hooked on Facebook at 22% compared to Orkut’s 20%. About 21% Facebook users have a PG degree compared to 19% in Orkut. Facebook also seems to have gained what marketers say stickiness in India.
An average social networker spends about 1,000 seconds per visit compared to 633 seconds on Orkut, according to Vizisense. The online rating agency profiled these statistics by inserting codes in the respective networks. Orkut is trying to gain stickiness by launching newer features like maps and its Android mobile operating system on which it can port these applications.
Google India’s Rahul Kulkarni had no comment except that his company has strong plans for Orkut in India. Orkut also has a more younger population, which explains users switching loyalty easily, though the two sites have duplicity as well. About 6.1 million users in India are on Facebook and Orkut. While Orkut is mostly accessed from cyber cafes, home seems to the favourite place for logging into Facebook.
Source : Economic times
Simple: School kids/teenagers are on Orkut and after becoming earning members they switch to Facebook. Basically Orkut has not much functionality and looks dated and limited in reach..