Orkut going to shutdown officially

Google launched Orkut in January 2004, and now It was announced today that Google intends to shut down its very first social network, Orkut. As of September 30, 2014, Orkut will no longer be available.

The Orkut Team Says : 

Ten years ago, Orkut was Google’s first foray into social networking. Built as a “20 percent” project, Orkut communities started conversations, and forged connections, that had never existed before. Orkut helped shape life online before people really knew what “social networking” was.

Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world. 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.

It's been a great 10 years, and we apologize to those still actively using the service. We hope people will find other online communities to spark more conversations and build even more connections for the next decade and beyond.

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."

If you were a user of Orkut, you will be able to export data using Google Takeout until September 2016. The Orkut team also intends to preserve an archive of all public communities, which will be available online starting September 30, 2014.

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