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The interesting thing about Orkut was the weird geographical distribution of adoption. I think it was something like Brazil, Turkey and India. It is interestin

by ak_111 4y ago

The interesting thing about Orkut was the weird geographical distribution of adoption. I think it was something like Brazil, Turkey and India. It is interesting to contemplate a world where one social network like facebook didn't end up dominating the entire space, but instead we had a bunch of social networks each dominating their own geographical region. And each such social network had its own peculiar dynamics, features and product experience that reflected the culture of the region it dominated. I think such a world would have lead to way more innovation in this space. After all in our world the only region that remained independent of Facebook and developed its own form of social network, China, has definitely contributed its own distinctive take on social network design. For good or bad, no one can deny the contribution of wechat and tiktok to this space, with their take on economic design in social network or insanely personalised algorithms. Now imagine instead of a bipolar world of social networks that we inhabit, we had a multipolar one with for example the Nordic, Latin American and African region each having their own thriving social network universe that reflected their culture, and it is easy to contemplate a much more richer and innovative social networking landscape.

moreira 4y ago
> It is interesting to contemplate a world where one social network like facebook didn't end up dominating the entire space, but instead we had a bunch of social networks each dominating their own geographical region. And each such social network had its own peculiar dynamics, features and product experience that reflected the culture of the region it dominated. That's exactly what the world was like before Facebook. Different countries had their own social networks. I grew up during that time, and remember the variety from having friends in different countries. "And each such social network had its own peculiar dynamics, features and product experience that reflected the culture of the region it dominated." > I think such a world would have lead to way more innovation in this space. Such a world led to Facebook - a single, centralised, unified UX. Long forgotten are the custom themes and addons for people's social media profiles, and peculiarities and dynamics of all the different social networks.
- biztos 4y ago
  For a while there was a Hungarian one called iWiW which IIRC stood for “internet who is who.” But pronounced like “ee-viv.” Wikipedia says the first “I” was for International but actually I don’t think anybody knew/cared at the time. I didn’t use it much but it definitely felt like a new thing, and it’s unfortunate all these specific niche networks seem to have died out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IWiW https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IWiW
diamondage 4y ago
I think you're missing a bunch of social networks. You almost certainly have to consider Telegram (700m + monthly active users) aka 1/3 size of fb, arguably more active. Also Discord 400m+ MAU. And also remember how every app ultimately can descend into a dominant network force - remember when instagram was just an app to add filters to photos!
- ak_111 4y ago
  I wanted to keep it limited to "Facebook blue app"-like social networks and not just any app with a social element. So an app where people can interact with their immediate social network in a semi-private manner (I wouldn't even include whatsapp in this definition).
Zanfa 4y ago
> I think it was something like Brazil, Turkey and India. And for whatever reason, Estonia. No idea how it came to be, but for a period of time before Facebook took over, Orkut was the main social network everybody was using around here.
- Strom 4y ago
  Facebook didn't accept new user accounts at the time. You have to remember that Facebook was for university e-mails only before September 2006. By that time Orkut was already widespread in Estonia, taking market share quickly from the previous dominator rate.ee, which was a domestic hot-or-not clone that didn't offer discussion opportunities. Orkut was a breath of fresh air compared to rate, because of its wide selection of features.
shadowgovt 4y ago
> It is interesting to contemplate a world where one social network like facebook didn't end up dominating the entire space, but instead we had a bunch of social networks each dominating their own geographical region. One person's "regional diversity" is another's "Balkanization." ... but for this application I don't disagree with you at all. In fact, I suspect Facebook is doing a disservice to humanity at large trying to get 100% of the human population onto its network; this results in the need to do some pretty inhuman things to users, like pretending that everyone can operate under a flat mass cultural norm so that a TOS can be enforced. They're conducting a large-scale experiment on human interaction that is in no way guaranteed to pan out.
majani 4y ago
It's still kinda that way now. Eastern Europe has VK, China has WeChat, Japan has LINE. The 2 billion people in those geographies count for something

by ak_111 4y ago

moreira 4y ago

> It is interesting to contemplate a world where one social network like facebook didn't end up dominating the entire space, but instead we had a bunch of social networks each dominating their own geographical region. And each such social network had its own peculiar dynamics, features and product experience that reflected the culture of the region it dominated. That's exactly what the world was like before Facebook. Different countries had their own social networks. I grew up during that time, and remember the variety from having friends in different countries. "And each such social network had its own peculiar dynamics, features and product experience that reflected the culture of the region it dominated." > I think such a world would have lead to way more innovation in this space. Such a world led to Facebook - a single, centralised, unified UX. Long forgotten are the custom themes and addons for people's social media profiles, and peculiarities and dynamics of all the different social networks.

biztos 4y ago
For a while there was a Hungarian one called iWiW which IIRC stood for “internet who is who.” But pronounced like “ee-viv.” Wikipedia says the first “I” was for International but actually I don’t think anybody knew/cared at the time. I didn’t use it much but it definitely felt like a new thing, and it’s unfortunate all these specific niche networks seem to have died out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IWiW https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IWiW

diamondage 4y ago

I think you're missing a bunch of social networks. You almost certainly have to consider Telegram (700m + monthly active users) aka 1/3 size of fb, arguably more active. Also Discord 400m+ MAU. And also remember how every app ultimately can descend into a dominant network force - remember when instagram was just an app to add filters to photos!

ak_111 4y ago
I wanted to keep it limited to "Facebook blue app"-like social networks and not just any app with a social element. So an app where people can interact with their immediate social network in a semi-private manner (I wouldn't even include whatsapp in this definition).

Zanfa 4y ago

> I think it was something like Brazil, Turkey and India. And for whatever reason, Estonia. No idea how it came to be, but for a period of time before Facebook took over, Orkut was the main social network everybody was using around here.

Strom 4y ago
Facebook didn't accept new user accounts at the time. You have to remember that Facebook was for university e-mails only before September 2006. By that time Orkut was already widespread in Estonia, taking market share quickly from the previous dominator rate.ee, which was a domestic hot-or-not clone that didn't offer discussion opportunities. Orkut was a breath of fresh air compared to rate, because of its wide selection of features.

shadowgovt 4y ago

> It is interesting to contemplate a world where one social network like facebook didn't end up dominating the entire space, but instead we had a bunch of social networks each dominating their own geographical region. One person's "regional diversity" is another's "Balkanization." ... but for this application I don't disagree with you at all. In fact, I suspect Facebook is doing a disservice to humanity at large trying to get 100% of the human population onto its network; this results in the need to do some pretty inhuman things to users, like pretending that everyone can operate under a flat mass cultural norm so that a TOS can be enforced. They're conducting a large-scale experiment on human interaction that is in no way guaranteed to pan out.

majani 4y ago

It's still kinda that way now. Eastern Europe has VK, China has WeChat, Japan has LINE. The 2 billion people in those geographies count for something