WebProNews

Many American software developers hang on Facebook's every word.  MySpace gets a fair amount of attention, too.  But Orkut is popular in other parts of the world, and it turns out that Indian developers are much more interested in it than in any potential competitor.

Evans Data Corporation surveyed 300 developers in India.  Although the sample could have been bigger, it found, "73% of them said they had used Orkut, as compared to 35% for Facebook and 32% for MySpace."

 

Since Yahoo and Google have been known to treat India as a sort of technological test bed, this discovery might be significant.  The odds that an interesting or important app will be created there seem high, and then Orkut will be better able to hold off Facebook and MySpace in one of the world's most populous nations.

Google could treat American users to the upgrade, too, of course.  The issue of Orkut spreading from India and Brazil to other countries is likely to remain a problem, though, as apps don't often act as a major draw.

At least this Orkut development justifies a move reported by Elinor Mills: Google "released new domains specific to India and Brazil as a result of the popularity in those countries."