And then all those Brazilians flocked to VKontakte because apparently VK groups were somehow similar to what Orkut offered. I remember the rush to translate everything into Portuguese.

If Orkut got integrated into Google's ecosystem, spinning it out probably would've cost more money than they could've sold it for.

I imagine they factored this in before deciding to shut it down rather than sell it.

> If Orkut got integrated into Google's ecosystem

It would have met the same fate as if it hadn't - i.e., it would have been killed off.

Being big in one country is hardly a success, though. For a platform ideally you'd want to work across multiple regions.

If the country has 1 billion or 200 million people, as was the case, it's hard to argue your point

I mean, you have to have a pretty strict definition of success if, say, 100M daily active users does not qualify

(Disclaimer: last number made up)