Orkut
The archive has not found a surviving copy.
2004·Early web, before YouTube
A social network run by Google and named after the engineer who built it.
At a glanceThe facts
- Spread in
- 2004
- Began as
- A web page
- Made by
- Orkut Büyükkökten, a Turkish engineer at Google
- Origin
- Not an upload originally
- Available
- Not held by ViralWorld
What this wasThe story
Google launched Orkut quietly on 22 January 2004, a side project by one engineer. It never took in America and became the dominant social network of Brazil and India — by 2014 Brazilians were 55 per cent of its users and Indians another 18. Google closed it on 30 September 2014. A generation's first internet was a site most Western histories do not mention.
Why it matteredWhat changed
It was among the most visited sites in Brazil and India. On its last day more than half its traffic was Brazilian.
TimelineIn order
- Made
The network is launched.1 What else happened on 22 January
- Later
Google announces that it will close.1
- Taken down
It closes. Brazil accounts for 55.5 per cent of its traffic and India for 18.4.1
Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast
This began as a web page, not as a video.
Where it came fromWhat we know
There is no original upload to identify: this did not begin as one. There is no copy of it here either — what it was, when it appeared and what people called it is what this page can tell you.
Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This began as a web page, not as a video.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
SourcesWhat was read
Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things