: Development of Korean Online Certificate Infrastructure as Local Standard

Facebook vs. Orkut

David Nemer

7th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry

20th May 2011

The Battle over Middle Aged Users in Brazil

Nemer, David

Agenda

• Motivation

• Comparison between Facebook and Orkut

• Methodology

• Findings

• Conclusion

• Future Work

Nemer, David

Motivation

Nemer, David

Motivation

?

Nemer, David

Facebook vs. Orkut – numbers1,2

0100200300400500600

users / million

0102030405060

users / million

0

2

4

6

8years in Brazil 2009-2010

4.5 million users

Age: 45-70

0

1

2

3

4users / million

(33.3%) (7.3%)

1- Facebackers: www.facebakers.com ; 2- Orkut Demographics: http://www.orkut.com/MembersAll

Nemer, David

Research Question

Why are the middle age users from Brazil choosing Facebook over Orkut?

Nemer, David

Methodology

• An approach based on Netnography (Kozintes, 2010)

• 30 subjects (randomly chosen)

• 15 male / 15 female

• 45 – 70 years old

• Online questionnaire

• User observation

• 4 months

Nemer, David

Questionnaire

• Why did you signed up for Facebook?

• What do you use Facebook for?

• Are you satisfied with it? Explain why.

• Have you heard of Orkut?

• If yes, is there any reason for you not to sign up

for Orkut or switch to Facebook?

• How do you access your Facebook account? (devices)

Nemer, David

Analysis of the data

• Thematic analysis

• Looking for patterns

• Observation: 2 hours a day reading the

subjects’ profile and news feed

Nemer, David

Why join Facebook?

• Invited by friends

• They trust their friends

• Curiosity

• Keep in touch with old

friends and relatives

Nemer, David

Why not Orkut?

• Not safe

• SPAM

• Suspicious links

• Not invited

Nemer, David

“Pro” Facebook

• Facebook is the new thing

• Satisfied with Facebook / Reliable

• They felt safe on Facebook

• Didn’t feel their privacy was invaded

• Use of mobile device

Nemer, David

Against Orkut

• Slow and unreliable

• Heavy Layout

• Communication was effortful

Nemer, David

Observation Findings

• Friends from all ages

• Mostly communicate with

people from their age group

• No games

• Sometimes used applications

• Communication mostly with text

• They do watch their kids online

Nemer, David

Wrap-up / Conclusion

• Security

• Trust

• Reliable

• Usability

• Fast Access

• Clean Design

• Not feel overwhelmed

• Portability

• Mobile Devices

Nemer, David

Future Work

• In Brazil, is Facebook a trend or a real thing amongst the middle aged group?

• Is this phenomenon happening all over the world? Why?

• How are the young kids reacting?

Nemer, David

dnemer@indiana.edu

http://www.dnemer.com

DAVID NEMER

Ph.D. Student in Social InformaticsSchool of Informatics and Computing

Indiana University, Bloomington