Space, Dreams and Beyond

Note: This one is just a re-post with some minor updates from my yahoo 360 blog. I am just trying to move some of my earlier and most viewed blogs to wordpress.

My guess is about 1.5 million Indian youths, living in India, USA and other countries are on Orkut, an “online community” , to increase the “circumference of their social circle”. It might seem like a low number when compared to about 14 million Brazilians out of about 22 million (more than 26 million at the time of this update) total Orkut members. However, it is clear that among Indians this website is more popular than any other similar ones like myspace, yahoo 360 or hi5. Every other person from India I come across seems to be registered here.

So what is in Orkut that makes it so popular among Indians. From my two month (now 4) experience on Orkut, I figured out top 5 reason why Indians like Orkut.

1. No Blogging: We are not good at writing. We don’t have that creative style blended with dry and sarcastic humor. So we would rather stay away from wesbsites which asks us to Blog. Of course some unholy souls like me who think we can write but actually cannot, blog on other sites, but we are not good at it! face it.

2. No Customized View: When I walked into Subway for first time in my life all I wanted was a Sandwich. I was so annoyed when I was given 12,3456 options on my sandwich. I mean what I am paying you for? That’s the way we were brought up. We do not like to customize, just give us a decent look and we will live with it. Orkut knows that.

3. Lot of Communities: We grew up forming communities in India and that’s what we do on Orkut. You search for a word, you will find some desi dude has already created a community on that word. Your first name, last name, your dog’s middle name, date of birth..everything! Every community is filled with Indians. Brazilians tend to hang out in their own Portuguese community, so their over-dominating presence is relatively mitigated and you will find Indian population dominating everywhere. Of course, our Pakistani friends also create lot of communities but for some reason only Pakistanis join them.

4. Testimonials: We like to praise each other. It works on simple dynamics of scratching each others back. You testify that I am a gift to mankind and I will testify that you are the smartest person ever existed on this planet. World would have been much better place if even 0.5% of these testimonials were true, but who cares, Orkut is a much better place!

5. Scrapping: We like to talk loudly and in public. Chatting style. I mean just visit the streets on India. Scrapping provides just that. Its fun, its not formal email communications and you don’t have time yourself for chatting. So what do you do, ‘Scrap it’! We are so obsessed with it that our friends congratulate us on 25th scrap, 50th scrap ..345750 th scrap. We just love it.

Update: as suggested by one of the other blogger on sparks team.

6. Girls : This could also be true for girls looking out for guys, but I can say for sure that’s not causing the rise. Most (not all), Indian guys are in general shy, or being frank not suave enough to approach a girl for date and most of the times girls are not receptive either for such proposals. Although, I must again note that we are moving towards west quite fast and many of the love birds out there may not identify themselves with this, but I can say for sure majority of Indians would.

However the fact remains that most of the guys feel deprived comparing themselves to the dating patterns of the west and such social networking website where one do not have to worry about their live appearance and pick-up lines, provide a decent solution. I have been told that Indian Matrimonial websites like shaadi.com also is turning into a dating website but Orkut works even better as parents do not tend to be on it. Also, other than Indian women, Orkut hosts LOT of Brazilian women and women from all around the world for those who want to try their luck beyond the borders.

So yes, with very specific search features like dating preferences, age, location, etc..guys can find some really interesting profiles of their choice. Read her scraps, look at her pics and get an idea about how receptive she is and then eventually approach with arguably the most cliched phrase on Orkut “Will you be my friend?”