Orkut Buyukkokten Age, Biography, Family, Facts & More

Bio/Wiki
Real Name	Orkut Buyukkokten
Profession	Software Engineer
Famous For	Orkut.com
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)	in centimeters- 168 cm in meters- 1.68 m in feet inches- 5’ 6”
Weight (approx.)	in kilograms- 60 kg in pounds- 132 lbs
Eye Color	Black
Hair Color	Black
Personal Life
Date of Birth	February 6, 1975
Age (as in 2018)	43 Years
Birthplace	Konya, Turkey
Zodiac sign/Sun sign	Aquarius
Nationality	Turkish
Hometown	Konya, Turkey
School	Konya Meram Anadolu Lisesi (1986-93)
College/Universities	Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey Stanford University
Educational Qualification(s)	A B.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering and Information Science from Bilkent University A Master's Degree in Computer Science from Stanford University A Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University
Religion	Not Known
Ethnicity	Not Known
Food Habit	Non-Vegetarian
Hobbies	Interacting with People, Dancing, Listening to Music
Controversies	• His ex-partner, Derek Holbrook (“Plaintiff”), filed a lawsuit against him for breach of contract and related torts arising out of the dissolution of a domestic partnership. • In another lawsuit, Affinity Engines, based in Palo Alto, California, said engineer Orkut Buyukkokten illegally took the code that he had written for the company, which he co-founded with him when he joined Google.
Boys, Affairs and More
Sexual Orientation	Gay
Marital Status	Separated
Affairs	Derek Holbrook (“Plaintiff”)
Family
Partner	Derek Holbrook (“Plaintiff”); Ex-Partner
Children	2
Parents	Father- Name Not Known Mother- Name Not Known
Favorite Things
Favorite Food	Quail Eggs
Favorite Beverage	Red Wine
Style Quotient
Car Collection	Audi A3
Money Factor
Salary	Not Known
Net Worth	$10 million (as in 2014)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Orkut Buyukkokten

• Does Orkut Buyukkokten smoke?: Not Known

• Does Orkut Buyukkokten drink alcohol?: Yes 

• He was born in Turkey but spent his early years in Germany, as his parents had moved there when Orkut was just one year old.

• When he was in the second standard, the family returned to Turkey. 

• It was because of spending his early years in Germany, Orkut developed a German accent.

• While in the 4th standard, he started coding (in BASIC). 

• While in High School, he was bullied by a group of three boys. Earlier, he didn’t know the reason. Years later, he found that they bullied him because he had good grades.

• After the high school, Orkut went on to pursue his graduation in Computer Science at the Bilkent University in Ankara.

• After his graduation, when he applied for higher studies in the United States, he deliberately skipped MIT, as he considered it a too serious place to study.

• He almost gave a miss to the Stanford University too, as he considered its application fee ($100) too steep. It was only after his father’s insistence that he decided to apply at the Stanford. 

• Orkut’s thesis at the Stanford was on efficient web browsing on handheld devices.

• While studying at the Stanford, Orkut met Larry Page and Sergey Brin when Google was still google.stanford.edu. 

• During his Stanford days, Orkut loved to interact more with undergraduate students than graduate students.

• In the fall of 2001, he launched a social network for the students of Stanford- ‘Club Nexus.’    

• The launch of ‘Club Nexus’ received a positive response, and it also helped him get undergraduate and graduate students together to work on one platform.

• His next work was on ‘inCircle,’ a network for the Stanford Alumni Association.

• After graduating from the Stanford, he received some prominent job offers including from Google and Microsoft. He preferred Google over Microsoft, as he found it more exciting and also knew its founders.

• In 2002, he joined Google’s engineering team as a front-end developer. 

• Orkut considers people and technology two of his passions and has dedicated almost his whole career connecting people through technology.

• While at the Google, as a 20 percent project (a Google’s concept where one devotes 20 percent of his/her time to something he/she loves in alignment with Google’s core mission), he created a social network called ‘Eden.’ However, he couldn’t get the domain eden.com. Then, had a meeting with Marissa Mayer and Eric Schmidt, and they suggested that he should launch it as orkut.com because: he was the one who created it, it was a five-letter word, and the domain was available. 

• With orkut.com, he wanted to create a global community to connect people. 

• Orkut.com was a one-man project, as he designed all of orkut.com single-handedly (including web design).

• Soon after its launch, Orkut.com became a sensational social networking site. 

• At one point, Orkut.com became so popular that it had over 300 million users across the globe and had as many pages as Google search. 

• To commercialise inCircle and Club Nexus, in 2002, he launched a company, Affinity Engines; the same company, which, in 2004, sued him, along with Google, for trade secret misappropriation. The lawsuit was settled in 2006.

• In 2008, he left Orkut.com team to join Google as a Product Manager. There, he worked on Google images, Google one bar, and Google videos.

• In 2016, Orkut Buyukkokten launched a new social networking service Hello.com. Hello.com was launched in Brazil in July 2016.

• Orkut says that he sees Hello.com as a spiritual successor to orkut.com.

• During an interview, he said that whenever he feels being under pressure for work deadlines, he used to spend time with friends; as they give him the emotional support. 

• Orkut considers Marissa Mayer as an amazing friend and mentor and finds himself lucky working with her for a long time. 

• He loves languages and can speak German, Turkish, English, and French.

• Orkut is also a music freak and can play the guitar, mandolin, keyboard, and piano like a pro.

• He is an avid dancer too and has learnt swing dance, modern dance, tango, salsa, and even ballet. 

• Orkut is a certified bartender and also went to massage school for two years and is now a certified massage therapist too.