The Global Community
March 25th, 2008 | Published in Google Orkut
Orkut is all about community, and we sure do have lots of them: more than 45 million, covering all imaginable topic areas (and a few that defy the imagination). Owners can specify languages and countries for their communities, and I'm pleased to see that all of orkut's many languages and countries are represented. The most common community language is Portuguese, with more than 10 times as many communities as the next most common language, English. Third most common is UK English, which was introduced in spring 2006 to distinguish between people who call the World Cup sport "football" and those who call it "soccer." Spanish and Hindi take fourth and fifth place, as shown in this table:
| language | communities | largest community | members |
| Portuguese | 40,460,878 |
Eu amo a minha MÃE! [I love my MOTHER!] |
3,903,588 |
| English | 3,738,534 | Nike | 624,095 |
| English (UK) | 469,538 | David Beckham | 118,657 |
| Spanish | 186,323 | Pra que serve o Orkut? [What's Orkut for?] | 79,734 |
| Hindi | 43,837 | Cafe Coffee Day | 55,492 |
| Estonian | 37,199 | Estonia | 63,505 |
| All |
34,294 | Caipirnhas [a cocktail] | 311,487 |
| French | 25,118 | Paris | 21,772 |
| Telugu |
23,925 | అబ్బా!!! ఛా!!! [Yeah, right!] | 15,665 |
(Fine print: Afrikaans would have come in sixth, but none of the top communities were actually in that language. Similarly, none of the top "Hindi" communities had names or most of their messages in Hindi, and the top two "French" communities aren't really in French.)
In response to a suggestion, I also looked at which of the 28 community categories are most popular. We were curious about which countries are most represented in each category relative to their size, some of which are shown below. For example, Indians have far more communities in the Alumni & Schools category than even their large numbers would predict.
| category |
% of communities |
some top countries |
| Individuals |
23% |
Madagascar, Brazil |
| Other |
21% |
Benin |
| Alumni & Schools |
6.8% |
India |
| Music |
6.5% |
Norway, Canada |
| Recreation & Sports |
4.2% |
Argentina |
| Romance & Relationships |
3.8% |
French Polynesia, Monaco |
| Family & Home |
3.6% |
Mexico, United States |
| Activities |
3.3% |
Paraguay, Pakistan |
| Fashion & Beauty |
3.2% |
Monaco |
All other categories are below 3% of the total. The least popular category is Science & History (.4%), to the dismay of this orkut historian.
Until next time, enjoy community wherever you find it!