New Delhi, Delhi, India
Prerna Gupta, 24 year old alumnus of Stanford University, recently quit her job at a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley to start Yaari.com - a new social networking site that claims to be "created by Indian youth, for Indian youth".
Yaari integrates the most popular features from other sites, like customizable profiles and media uploading. But it has also introduced some of its own unique apps, like Yaari Mobile, which allows social networking from anywhere using simple SMS technology.
With a spate of new social networking sites in India, the resounding question is, "What's the USP?" Answers Prerna, "What makes Yaari unique is what we stand for - Indian youth. Social networking is about more than just technology. It's ultimately about the people who are creating it and what image they convey. Yaari is about cool youth in India, having fun."
Prerna says her goal is for Yaari to be a platform where Indian youth express themselves freely. "We want our users to have input in what Yaari becomes, so we listen closely to what they want, and we give them exactly that." In keeping with this goal, Prerna maintains an active blog, where she will soon begin featuring prominent Indian bloggers. Yaari will also be hosting the official Mr & Ms India Online pageant this month. Contestants will have a chance to win modeling contracts and be featured in top Indian entertainment publications. Winners will be determined by popular vote, along with an esteemed panel of judges.
Prerna, and co-founder Parag Chordia, believe the site offers a more exciting and rich user experience than the leading competitor, Orkut, which is cited to have over 1 million Indian users. They also feel that a site created specifically for Indians will have greater long-term appeal. Prerna is confident in Yaari's ability to win users from Orkut. "Orkut is good for one thing: scrapping. But eventually users get bored with that, and that's when Yaari shines."
Another thing that is unique to Yaari compared with other Indian social networks is that it is invite-only. Prerna receives hundreds of invitation requests daily, but she feels strongly about preserving the integrity of the network by restricting access to the "right kind" of Indian youth.
Yaari's executive team is currently two-deep, including Prerna, who calls herself Chief Yaar, and CTO Parag Chordia, who holds a BS from Yale University and a PhD from Stanford. Prerna and Parag currently split their time between the US and India. They say Yaari headquarters are their "laptops and the Internet", but they are planning to open an office in South Delhi this year and build-out their team. Yaari is self-funded. The founders hope to attract 1 million users in the first year.
About Yaari LLC
Yaari is an invitation-based social network for Indians. The site was launched in September 2006 by two American-born Indians, Prerna Gupta and Parag Chordia, who recently graduated from Stanford University. Visit http://yaari.com for details.
Prerna Gupta, Yaari.com, prerna@yaari.com
Source: Yaari.com (Business Wire India)
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