The man who built Orkut wants to bring it back. According to TechCrunch, Orkut Büyükkökten, 51, posted on X asking people to visit Orkut.com, add their names to show support for a comeback, and invite others. It is a show of support, not a launch.
What he said
In a letter on Orkut.com, Büyükkökten criticizes social media’s growing reliance on algorithms and AI-generated content. In his view, AI is extraordinary technology, but it is dissolving the premise that made social networking special. His pitch is to rebuild the internet people first loved, with a focus on friendship, community and human connection.
TechCrunch notes there is no product name, no features, no timeline and no word on funding. It is also unclear whether a new version is already in development. Büyükkökten did not respond to the site’s request for comment.
Where Orkut came from
Büyükkökten created Orkut in 2004 as a side project while he worked at Google. It was hugely popular in India and Brazil and reportedly reached about 300 million active users at its peak, per TechCrunch. It lost ground to Facebook, and Google shut it down in September 2014. If you never used it, think of it as an early rival to the networks you use now, built around profiles, friends and communities.
His earlier attempts
This is not his first try since Orkut:
- Hello (2016): a social network built around shared interests. It shut down in 2020 after more than 2 million downloads, TechCrunch reports.
- 2022: he hinted he was “building something new” on Orkut.com.
- 2024: he told WIRED he was building a network that would use AI and machine learning to build communities. It never launched.
Why it matters
His complaint is a familiar one: many people feel big-platform feeds show what an algorithm picks rather than what friends post. Other projects take different routes, like Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat, which sends messages without internet. And if you just want less exposure on the networks you already use, here is how to deactivate Instagram temporarily.
With no product, timeline or funding announced, an Orkut comeback is still only a promise. The sign-up list can show whether there is demand, but it does not say how the network would work or how it would pay for itself.
