Not that I like or use Orkut, but keep in mind it's the #1 social network in some countries. The story has to be a bit more complicated than "it's terrible, they just didn't get it."
I've never understood why it's so popular in those countries. It really is an awful site, and they really don't get it. Given a choice between Orkut and MySpace, most people would go for the featureset in MySpace first. Orkut v. Facebook is a goodbye-Google slaughter.
I've never understood why it's so popular in those countries.
That's probably because you don't understand the cultures of those countries. Just because something is attractive to an American does NOT mean it's going to be attractive to everyone else in the world. When a specific social networking site becomes popular somewhere, it may just be that it provides a user experience that the folks in that place truly value.
