Ads steady as Google revamps Orkut

DIGITAL   SOCIAL NETWORKS   GOOGLE

India - Google has revamped Orkut, its social networking platform, offering up a new interface and features such as live video-chat and video testimonials.

Although Orkut.co.in, with more than 14 million unique users per month, is the largest social networking website of India, the revamped content and feature strategy of Orkut bears some resemblance to Facebook.com, which receives more than 8 million unique users every month.

Similar to Facebook.com, the redesigned homepage of every Orkut member will have a prominent status message window of "What are you up to?" and display an extensive update summary of their friends' activities. The site has also introduced a text-based chat facility inside the Orkut window.

Some new features that will be unique to Orkut include live video-chat, video scraps and video testimonials facility.

Surprisingly, the revamped site will not be made available to all Orkut members initially. Only select users, who will get the invitation, will be allowed to use the revamped version of the site.

It is important to note that the revamp is only limited to redesign, addition of new features and technology enhancement of Orkut. It has not introduced any new advertising options on the revamped Orkut.co.in, Parminder Singh, business head, Google India clarifies to afaqs!.

Singh adds that the revamped Orkut will continue to have the same advertising options, which includes banner ads, branded communities and applications. He agrees that the revamped site will provide high user engagement and will thus benefit advertisers by enabling them to carry out more engaging campaigns. It is estimated that the average time spent per visit on Orkut.co.in is about 12 minutes, while it is about 15 minutes on Facebook.com.

Among the top performing advertising categories on Orkut, Singh says, "Telecom, automobile, financial services and education categories are doing well on Orkut.co.in."

Brands such as Nokia, Vodafone and Aviva use Orkut to reach out to their target audience.

Afaqs!