Google+ Is Not Going to Replace Orkut Now, But It Will Eventually

Everyone is loving Google+, so far, and are praising it as the first successful social web product from Google. But Google does have another social network, a very traditional one at that, Orkut. While the site is not really popular in much of the world, it has been doing particularly well in India and Brazil.

Now that Google+ is here though, is Orkut's faith threatened? Well, yes and no.

In the short or even the medium term, Orkut is going to stick around. It has millions of users around the world, with a big history on the site, and they're not going appreciate being forced to move to Google+, if Google were to take such an approach.

Google is not going to risk alienating the remaining users, especially as more and more are moving to Facebook. Orkut is now the most popular social network only in Brazil, the last holdout.

It got overtaken by Facebook in India last year and the mammoth social network has been making moves in Brazil as well. Orkut is holding on to the lead, but Facebook is growing fast.

So, while Google isn't killing off Orkut, it's definitely thinking of ways it can entice users to switch from Orkut to Google+ and not defect for Facebook.

But this isn't an immediate problem and it's not something Google is very preoccupied with, at the moment. For now, Google has to make sure that Google+ maintains its momentum and continues to build up an user base.

The company can afford to lose a few users to Facebook in the meantime, while Google+ is getting closer to Orkut. Right now, there are several Orkut features that aren't available in Google+, some may never be, so the new social network is not a replacement for the venerable Orkut yet.