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Orkut Buyukkokten Biography: Age, Career, Family and More

F4U Editorial Desk • Updated October 6, 2026 • 3 min read

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Quick Info

Date of birthFebruary 6, 1975

Age43 (as in 2018)

BirthplaceKonya, Turkey

ProfessionSoftware Engineer

NationalityTurkish

Marital statusSeparated

FamilyPartner - Derek Holbrook (ex-partner); 2 children

Net worth$10 million (as in 2014)

Orkut Buyukkokten Biography

Orkut Buyukkokten is a Turkish-born software engineer best known for creating the social network Orkut.com. Trained at Bilkent University and Stanford, he

Early life and background

Orkut Buyukkokten was born on February 6, 1975, in Konya, Turkey. His family moved to Germany when he was very young and returned to Turkey when he was in the second grade, an experience that left him with a German-accented command of languages. He attended Konya Meram Anadolu Lisesi for his secondary schooling.

He went on to study computer engineering and information science at Bilkent University in Ankara, earning a B.Sc. He later pursued graduate study at Stanford University, where he completed both a master's degree and a Ph.D. in computer science. While at Stanford he focused his thesis work on efficient web browsing for handheld devices.

Career

Buyukkokten built his early reputation by developing social networking projects while at Stanford. In the fall of 2001 he launched Club Nexus, a network intended for Stanford students, and later developed inCircle for the Stanford Alumni Association. Those projects were early experiments in connecting people online and helped define his interest in social software.

After graduating, he joined Google in 2002 as a front-end developer. Working at Google, he continued to devote time to projects that connected people. As a 20 percent project he created a social network he originally called Eden. That project was relaunched under the name orkut.com, using his given name as the site brand. He designed Orkut.com entirely on his own, including the web design, and intended it to be a global community for connecting people.

Orkut.com grew rapidly and at its peak attracted hundreds of millions of users worldwide. Buyukkokten later left the Orkut team and moved into a product management role at Google, where his work included projects such as Google Images, Google Onebox, and Google Videos.

In 2002 he co-founded Affinity Engines to commercialize some of his earlier projects. Affinity Engines later brought litigation related to code and trade secrets; that dispute was settled in 2006. In 2016 Buyukkokten launched Hello.com, a social network he has described as a spiritual successor to Orkut, with an initial launch in Brazil in July of that year.

Public profile

Buyukkokten is known for combining an interest in people with a technical skill set. He learned to program at a young age and has described strong preferences for working directly with undergraduates and building community-oriented products. While at Stanford he met Larry Page and Sergey Brin and later collaborated with Google colleagues; he cites Marissa Mayer as a friend and mentor.

Outside of work, he is multilingual and plays several musical instruments, including guitar, mandolin, keyboard, and piano. He has trained in multiple dance styles and holds certifications as a bartender and a massage therapist. Personal details reported in public sources indicate he is non-vegetarian and enjoys quail eggs and red wine.

Personal life and family

Public records indicate Buyukkokten is Turkish by nationality and was listed as separated in available profiles. He has been identified as having had a domestic partnership with Derek Holbrook and is reported to have two children.

Legal matters

Two legal disputes connected to Buyukkokten have been publicly reported. One involved Affinity Engines asserting that code he had written was improperly taken when he joined Google; that matter reached a settlement in 2006. Another reported dispute arose from a lawsuit brought by a former partner alleging breach of contract and related claims.

Latest updates

In 2016 Buyukkokten introduced Hello.com as a successor project to Orkut.com, first launching the service in Brazil. He remains best known for creating Orkut.com and for his ongoing interest in social networking technologies.

Editorial Review and Sources

This F4U profile is written from publicly available career and profile information, then reviewed for clarity before publication. If you spot an outdated detail about Orkut Buyukkokten, send the page URL and a reliable correction source to f4udotin@gmail.com.

Reference context: StarsUnfolded

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Recent Work

Hello.com

A social networking service launched as a spiritual successor to Orkut, initially launched in Brazil in July 2016.

2016
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Career Highlights

  1. Created Orkut.com while at Google; designed the site single-handedly
  2. Launched Club Nexus and inCircle while at Stanford
  3. Joined Google in 2002 as a front-end developer and later served as a product manager
  4. Co-founded Affinity Engines; litigation settled in 2006
  5. Launched Hello.com in 2016
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Net Worth

$10 million (as in 2014)

Figures are editorial estimates based on publicly available reporting and may change as new information emerges.

Reviewed by F4U Editorial Desk

F4U profile pages are prepared from public career information, checked for readability, and updated when reliable correction sources are shared with the editorial team.

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Frequently Asked Questions

When was Orkut Buyukkokten born?

Orkut Buyukkokten was born on February 6, 1975.

What is Orkut Buyukkokten known for?

Orkut Buyukkokten is known for software Engineer.

What is Orkut Buyukkokten’s marital status?

Orkut Buyukkokten's marital status is listed as Separated.

What is Orkut Buyukkokten’s net worth?

Orkut Buyukkokten's net worth is commonly listed as $10 million (as in 2014), based on available public profile information.