Google Inc announced on Monday that it would pull the plug on its first social networking project, Orkut.

In its official blog, a post titled "Tchau Orkut" (Goodbye Orkut) explained the team's decision to pull the plug.

It said that the growth of Google's other projects - Youtube, Blogger and Google+ - have "outpaced Orkut's growth."

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"We've decided to bid Orkut farewell (or, tchau). We'll be focusing our energy and resources on making these other social platforms as amazing as possible for everyone who uses them."

The deadline has been set on September 30. Until then, existing users can still access their accounts and participate normally. Users who want to preserve their data are advised to export the data to their Google+ accounts using Google Takeout until September 2016.

New account signups, however, won't be possible. The Orkut app will also be removed from the App Store and Google Play by Monday.

Google said the public communities will be archived and available online starting September 30 and advised users to remove Orkut permanently from their Google accounts if they don't wish their names and posts to be included in the archive.

Orkut began ten years ago as part of Google's "20 percent project" which allowed staff to use a fifth of their work week on side projects.

Upon its launch, it became widely popular in Brazil and India but was soon overtaken by Facebook in India in 2010 and two years later in Brazil, according to Techcrunch.

To date, at least half of current Orkut users are from Brazil, 20 percent from India and less than 18 percent from the States.

 "It's been a great 10 years, and we apologize to those still actively using the service," said Google engineering director Paulo Golgher.

"We hope people will find other online communities to spark more conversations and build even more connections for the next decade and beyond."

Tagstechnology, YouTube, Blogger, 20 Percent project, Tchau Orkut, Google Takout