Google on Monday announced that it will shut down social network Orkut -- which had been mostly popular outside the United States -- at the end of September.

Orkut, the social networking service Google launched back in 2004, miraculously survived multiple rounds of spring cleaning despite the fact that it was never a huge hit outside of Brazil, India and a few other countries. It was always just a matter of time before Google was going to shut it down, however, and that day has now come.

However, according to its website about 50.6 per cent of its users were from Brazil. Another 20.44 per cent came from India, while the US and Pakistan accounted for 17.78 per cent and 0.86 per cent, respectively. 

"Ten years ago, Orkut was Google’s first foray into social networking. Built as a “20 percent” project, Orkut communities started conversations, and forged connections, that had never existed before. Orkut helped shape life online before people really knew what “social networking” was.

Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world. Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut's growth, we've decided to bid Orkut farewell (or, tchau). We'll be focusing our energy and resources on making these other social platforms as amazing as possible for everyone who uses them.

We will shut down Orkut on September 30, 2014. Until then, there will be no impact on current Orkut users, to give the community time to manage the transition. People can export their profile data, community posts and photos using Google Takeout (available until September 2016). Starting today, it will not be possible to create a new Orkut account.

Orkut, the service, may be going away, but all of those incredible communities Orkut users have created will live on. We are preserving an archive of all public communities, which will be available online starting September 30, 2014. If you don't want your posts or name to be included in the community archive, you can remove Orkut permanently from your Google account. Please visit our Help Center for further details. 

It's been a great 10 years, and we apologize to those still actively using the service. We hope people will find other online communities to spark more conversations and build even more connections for the next decade and beyond.," 

Google said in a post on the Orkut blog. 

Google's most formidable attempt came with Google+, launched in June 2011, a few months before the company pulled the plug on Buzz. Google said in October that 300 million users visit the Google+ homepage every month. While it has not found the kind of traction that would make it a true Facebook rival, Google has used the service more as a way of tying together the company's catalog of different services.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for Orkut's user numbers. We'll update this post when we hear back.

Google touted the growth of Google+, as well as YouTube and Blogger, as a reason it decided to shutter Orkut. "Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut's growth, we've decided to bid Orkut farewell," Paulo Golgher, Orkut's engineering director, wrote in a blog post.

The site will officially go dark on September 30. Existing users can export their photos and profile information using a service called Google Takeout, but new users are no longer able to set up accounts.

Tags: #Google #Orkut #Stupdown