As Twitter is announcing mass layoffs and shutting offices, users reminisced about the erstwhile social media application Orkut and said that the concept of ‘too big to die’ does not exist in the tech sector. Orkut was a social networking service owned and operated by Google.
The company was founded by Orkut Buyukkokten in January 2004 and was dissolved in September 2014. It was one of the most visited websites in India and Brazil in 2008.
An independent designer Ninnad Kothawade tweeted, “There’s no such thing as “too big to die” in tech. You alienate your users, and people eventually move on to a better, newer thing. Remember MySpace, Orkut, Tumblr (getting a weird revival), Snapchat, and Facebook (only used by a certain demographic of people).”
Kothawade has made some NFT designs and has also dealt with the likes of Coke, Spotify, and Netflix.
Director of content and audience development at NPR’s KOSU Radio and the host of Oklahoma Rock Show Ryan LaCroix said people can survive this as well just like they survived the downfall of social media apps such as Orkut, LiveJournal, Xanga, Vine, and Google+.
A user named Shahnawaaz said days, when people used Orkut, were “the days of actual unfiltered social media.” He wrote, “Orkut was the days of actual unfiltered social media. Bringing social media to mainstream issues has really plugged a lot of users down.”
Meanwhile, Twitter CEO and the world’s richest man Elon Musk said that Twitter has hit an all-time high active usage. Musk tweeted, “And… we just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage lol. Let that sink in …”
These developments come after reports of possible mass resignation at Twitter. Employees decided to put their papers in after Elon Musk sounded an ultimatum asking employees to either opt for ‘long hours at high intensity’ or leave. According to a poll on the workplace conversation app Blind, 42 per cent of employees decided to go for the ‘taking exit option’.
Platformer Managing Editor Zoe Schiffer said that designers leading the Blue verified project, Twitter lead web engineer, and the employees who maintained critical infrastructure are among the hundreds who have quit the company.
Also read: Twitter offices temporarily closed, employees lose access to buildings