Social Networking App for Gamers Qlan Secures $200K Pre-Seed Funding Led By Marwah Sports, CIIE.CO and Faad Network

Equity Investment by three incoming investors; led by Marwah Sports, CIIE.CO and Faad Network

With more than 100k combined downloads from PlayStore and AppStore, the gamers’ social network showcases its commitment to solution-driven experiences

The early-stage start-up will utilise the capital to expand its gamer community, gain deeper insights into user preferences, and establish a robust product-market fit

Qlan, the exclusive social networking app designed for gamers and esports enthusiasts, has secured pre-seed funding to fuel its expansion and enhance gamer networking, discovery, and content creation capabilities.

Previously operating as a bootstrapped startup, Qlan which now has over 100,000 combined downloads, underwent an extensive six-month beta testing period, culminating in the platform's full-version launch in January 2023. Bolstered by a committed team of over 20 professionals, the early-stage start-up achieved healthy organic growth, attracting a user base of over 50,000 gamers.

Qlan has effectively initiated itself as a thriving hub for gamers and esports enthusiasts with early adopters across the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, North & South America, South Africa, and the MENA regions, ultimately leading to a successful pre-seed funding round.

Qlan’s unparalleled approach of making a positive impact on the grassroots of the gaming industry attracted significant support from notable investors which included Marwah Sports, CIIE.CO, and Faad Network in the funding round. These investments will help Qlan in its vision of empowering gamers all over the world with an engaging and seamless networking opportunity.

Expressing his thoughts on the funding round, Sagar Nair, Co-founder, and CEO of Qlan commented, "The pre-seed funding round signifies an exciting new phase for Qlan, and we are delighted to have Marwah Sports, CIIE.CO, and Faad Network as backers. This demonstrates the remarkable potential of Qlan and the burgeoning global gaming and esports industry. While we are grateful for the worldwide validation of Qlan by gamers, our primary objective now is to scale our platform, optimize user experience, and gain deeper insights into our community's needs. With the invaluable support of our investors, we are poised to elevate Qlan to new horizons and empower the ever-expanding global community of gamers”

The investors backing Qlan have a distinguished portfolio of having supported and nurtured successful ventures in the past. Marwah Sports, the sports arm of the more than 60-year-old enterprise Marwah Group, has backed several marquee ventures including sports hardware manufacturing companies Square Off and Elevar, and sports tech companies Uactiv and Sporjo.

“Meaningful and engaged communities will form the bedrock of the fledgling Indian and global gaming ecosystem. With Qlan, individuals and organisations can focus on what is most important – retention and engagement. We are encouraged and excited by the progress made by the team – this is only just the beginning!” – Pranav Marwah; CEO - Marwah Sports & Director of Marwah Group.

CIIE.CO is the Innovation Continuum spreading from incubation, acceleration, seed, and growth funding to research. CIIE.CO has accelerated over 1000 entrepreneurs/startups, funded in over 300 startups, mentored, and coached over 5000 startups

”Esports in India is witnessing "green shoots" of tailwinds. With the government priming up with recognition, regulatory frameworks should follow suit. Parallelly there is a sharp rise in esports athletes, teams, events, sponsors turning to franchises etc. There will be a need to bridge these facets with a community-driven solution and enable growth. This is where Qlan fits in and would be ripe to tap into what we feel is a sunrise sector in India today.” - Chintan Antani; VP Seed Investing - CIIE.CO.

Faad Network Limited, a well-renowned investor network, has a substantial portfolio in the Esports domain that includes India’s first cloud gaming service, the Gaming Project, and Esports XO which is one of the country’s fastest-growing organizations.

“India has over 400 million online gamers, with a total market size of over 4 billion dollars. Not only do 90% of these gamers transact, but they also maintain an active social profile to connect with other gamers. This is where we found a fit in Qlan, which is building a comprehensive solution to join gamers and esports enthusiasts. The stellar team understands these gamers' space and pulse and will drive home a scalable business.” – Aditya Arora; CEO – Faad Network Limited.

According to the latest research by SkyQuest Technology, the Global Esports Market was valued at USD 1.08 Billion in 2021, and it is expected to reach a value of USD 2.8 Billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 14.50% over the forecast period (2022-2028). Esports is becoming increasingly popular as a result of global digitization and the low cost of advanced gaming technologies.

Emphasizing the importance of establishing strong fundamentals, driving growth, and attaining product-market fit, Qlan plans to utilize the funds raised in the Pre-Seed round to not only expand its platform to a wider community but also to bolster its team and leverage its technologically advanced product, which is meticulously crafted with a focus on user-centric principles.

ABOUT QLAN:

Qlan is dedicated to cultivating an engaged and sustainable gaming and esports ecosystem that prioritizes accessibility and exploration. By uniting all key players in the industry, Qlan aims to establish a vertical community where gamers and esports enthusiasts can effortlessly enter, discover new avenues, and thrive.

On the Qlan app, users can establish gaming profiles, connect with gamers possessing comparable skill levels, explore and share gaming content, unlock exciting gaming rewards, and much more.

The objective is to leverage technology in order to address the issues of insufficient discovery, ineffective networking, and difficulties faced by aspiring gamers trying to crack the world of gaming and esports.

Unleashing the Power of Connection: Introducing Shestel, the Revolutionary Social Networking Platform

In this digital age, where technological advancements seem to dominate our lives, the irony of feeling more disconnected than ever is hard to ignore. But what if there was a platform that harnessed the power of technology to bring people together, fostering meaningful connections and transforming the way we engage with entertainment? Enter Shestel, a groundbreaking social networking platform that seamlessly intertwines content and community, revolutionizing the way we experience and connect with entertainment.

Segment 1: The Digital Disconnection Issue

In a world where our screens dominate our attention, we find ourselves facing an alarming trend of extreme technological isolation. While the digital realm offers vast opportunities for content consumption, it often lacks the crucial human element that fosters genuine connections. Shestel aims to bridge this gap, serving as an online direct-to-consumer platform that leverages digital content to bring people together. By transcending the limitations of traditional social media, Shestel offers users an immersive experience that goes beyond mere entertainment consumption.

Segment 2: Transforming Entertainment Engagement

Shestel embraces the power of movies, TV shows, books, and music to facilitate online conversations and promote emotional vulnerability through entertainment-driven discourse. Available on both iOS and Android devices, the user-friendly app encourages users to explore and discover new content, sparking conversations with others who share their media interests. Shestel is not just a content discovery platform; it's a creative space where users can share their opinions, thoughts, and interpretations. Through innovative engagement features, Shestel empowers users to become critical thinkers and active participants in the content they consume.

Segment 4: Connecting a Global Community

With a global reach across 18 different countries and plans for further expansion, Shestel offers a unique platform for individuals to connect and engage with like-minded people from diverse backgrounds. Regardless of geographical boundaries, users can forge meaningful connections, share their passion for entertainment, and gain a deeper understanding of different cultures. Shestel transcends borders and builds a worldwide network of friends who love what you love, creating a global community of thinkers, critics, and content consumers.

Conclusion:

In a world hungry for genuine connections, Shestel emerges as a transformative force, blending the realms of social networking and content accessibility. Through its innovative approach, Shestel encourages users to go deeper with their entertainment, become critical thinkers, and find a place where they truly belong. By fostering intelligent discourse around movies, TV shows, books, and music, Shestel aims to revolutionize the way we engage with entertainment and create a lasting impact on the digital landscape.

Experience the power of connection and join the Shestel community today. Download the app by visiting our website, unleash your passion, and embark on a journey that transcends borders, elevates understanding, and fosters a global network of friends who share your love for entertainment.

Also follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and most importantly don't miss our podcasting "Thoughts From The Couch" where Doloreste Jean Baptiste, the female founder and CEO of Shestel holds biweekly podcasting events. The podcast is also available on Podbean.com, Itunes.com and others.

Telegram introduces Power Saving Mode along with other interventions in its latest feature update

Telegram Messenger has launched new features in its latest update for iOS and Android such as Power Saving Mode which will work automatically once the battery charge percentage reaches a certain level. In addition to this, the app has added a Granular Speed track to control further the playback speed of media files and Auto-Send Invite links for groups with restricted users.

Power Saving Mode

Telegram's animations and lightweight effects are optimized to make any phone feel powerful, but can now be disabled to extend battery life and improve performance on older devices. Power Saving Mode can be set to automatically turn on when any user’s device battery reaches a certain percentage. With individual toggles that let the users disable specific effects.

iOS users can also use power-saving settings to limit background updates. However, Telegram doesn’t recommend doing this, because users might see the app updating more frequently. For Android users, Telegram has manually tested more than 200 device types to see how well Telegram performs and created optimized default settings to ensure all users get the best experience.

Users can toggle Power Saving mode or tweak individual settings for autoplay, animations, and effects in Settings > Power Saving.

Granular Play Speed

Telegram enabled users to change the playback speed for videos, podcasts, voice and video messages for years now. Now users have even more flexibility by holding the 2x button to choose any speed they want between 0.2x–2.5x. To change the playback speed of videos, tap the menu button, then tap 'Playback Speed' and move the slider.

Auto-send Invite Links

Telegram users can control who is allowed to add them to groups. If any user is inviting someone who restricts this, they can now quickly send them an invite link as a message. Invite links now show previews in chats so that users are able to see where they lead at a glance.

To control who can add any specific user to any group directly, they need to go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Groups & Channels.

Read Time in Small Groups

To make collaboration in small teams easier, read receipts in groups under 100 members now show the exact time when any user’s messages were read by each person in the group.

Dynamic Order for Sticker Packs

As of the previous update, recently used sticker packs move to the top of the panel for easy access. If any user wants packs to stay where they are, they can tap the icon in the sticker panel and switch off Dynamic Pack Order.

Translated Bot Descriptions

Bot developers can now fully localize their bots by translating bot descriptions and the 'What can this bot do?' sections into multiple languages.

Improved folder support on iOS

iOS users can mark all chats in a folder as read with one tap. When forwarding messages, folders can be used to quickly find the right chat. This improvement is also coming to the Android app in one of the next updates.

New Animated Emoji(s)

This update includes ten new packs of custom emoji for Telegram premium users.

Interactive emoji(s) along with Chat Reactions

Telegram animators added new interactive versions of . Users can send any of them in 1-on-1 chats, then tap to unleash a full-screen effect for the sender and receiver. Everyone can also use these emoji(s) as reactions.

The Great Bug Hunt

Under this latest update, Telegram successfully rectified more than 400 known bugs from the platform. While Telegram is working on the next update, the app welcomes everyone to use bugs.telegram.org to report issues to our team and leave suggestions via suggestions.telegram.org

For more information, please visit Telegram’s latest blog: Power Saving Mode and More (telegram.org)

Social Networking App O’hi Secures A Funding of INR 3 Cr.

The brand intends to use the funding to bolster its technology, products, pilots, team building to prepare for aggressive scale

O’hi is the social networking app that took the first movers advantage using the power of real-life human interaction in the same physical space as café to allow people to make meaningful connections instantly.

The firm has raised INR 3 Cr. in seed funding from marquee investors such as Mr Rahul Mehta ( Managing partner DST ), Angellist US among others.

O'Hi solves problems in real life instantly while anyone is at a café or a lounge. The app is making it convenient for tourists to interact with locals or fellow tourists in a random city.

Founded in 2021, the brand is a result of Rupal Sharma and Adeeti Singh brainchild. In just six months of running beta, O’hi has seen over 56K user's behavior, they are diving deep into each & every expectation of authentic, instant socializing. They will soon be going for the next raise to move out of Beta, accelerate growth & double down on growth hacks, user intends that has shown strong signs of being a Global sensation

Commenting on the fund infusion Rupal & Adeeti, Founders, O’hi, said “We are very pleased to receive these funds and would like to thank our partners in realizing the vision that we had set out for O’hi. We are entering a very exciting, high acceleration phase in our journey and I am confident that this partnership will grow many folds in the coming months. We have an immense on-ground knowledge & learning of Human behaviors at different types of cafes, at different hours of the day as have been working, studying the same for over 4 years now. More and more Indian people are connecting via O’Hi every day, as the network breaks down geographic barriers and helps people in real life instantly while anyone is at a café or a lounge. We believe that the deep insights, learning they have accumulated in these months of piloting in Jaipur, Goa, Pune etc has enabled them to be on the path of the first big on-ground social network across the World.

The brand will leverage the capital infusion to invest in technology, products, and pilots to bolster its app, strengthen its team, and build the brand. They are looking at increasing their services. The platform started with Goa, Jaipur and currently with Pune, Gurugram and Bangalore intending to expand to new cities. 

About O’hi:

O'hi started in 2021 with Jaipur and Goa as their pilot cities, intending to further move to Gurgaon, Pune and Bangalore. Within half a year of existing in the market, the brand has a 56K plus user base, an initial round of funding and an extensive expansion plan.

The Young duo, Rupal & Adeeti have been friends for 13 years and have studied human behavior live at cafes. The fun fact is they are so deeply involved in this domain that it’s been over 4 years that every day they have visited at least 4 cafes to explore various things happening around in a cafe in terms of human behaviors and need, seek learnings. The app is making it convenient for tourists to interact with locals or fellow tourists in a random city.

Qlan: India’s Own Gamers’ Social Networking App Is Onboarding Gamers for an October Beta Launch

This first of its kind gamers network aims to provide a clearinghouse for gamers, esports enthusiasts and gaming organisations to build a diverse widespread community and facilitate value exchange between different entities – endemic and non-endemic brands

\With an aim to revolutionise social networking among Indian and global gamers, gaming professionals, content creators and gaming organizations as well as for the brands which are looking to invest in gaming. Qlan’s public beta will be launched in the fourth week of October. Through this one-stop platform, the focus will be on changing the way key stakeholders in the gaming and esports community meet, compete, and get discovered.

Qlan is designed to solve the grass root issues in the gaming community. This genre-specific platform will allow gamers to make verified connections with other gamers, support creators to grow and monetize their content, help gaming organizations reach out to a targeted audience and enable professionals to seek job and career opportunities, all within a single ecosystem.

The dedicated social networking app for gamers will also enable the esports, gaming communities and brands to seamlessly connect with each other and facilitate the creation of an industry complementing gaming ecosystem.

“At Qlan we dedicated several months on research and surveyed over 5,000 gamers to garner insights to better understand their problems. This is what encouraged us to build a dedicated platform for the gaming and esports community. Gamers communicate differently, they need to showcase themselves on a purpose-driven platform, whether they’re looking to go pro with esports contracts and celebrity-style “partner” streaming agreements or just looking for their next gig as a gaming professional. Qlan is built with a focused vision on creating a robust and sustainable gaming and esports ecosystem starting in India then world over,” said Sagar Nair, Co-Founder & CEO, Qlan.

The app is a one-stop solution to:

1. Create custom Solo, Squad & Org profiles
2. Showcase gaming skills by syncing in-game statistics
3. Access AI enabled gamer matchmaking for verified connections
4. Share gaming & esports content with an option to monetize early
5. Promote esports tournaments & IPs to a target audience
6. Get recognized & discovered as an esports/gaming professional

While commenting on the app, Co-Founder & CBO, Navin Talreja, said, “We saw how the absence of a professional esports hub limits the overall growth of the gaming ecosystem. We reached out and spoke to 40+ gaming organisations in India to understand their pain points. The need for them to get access to and engage with a targeted audience is higher than ever, with the clutter across existing platforms. The barriers are immense for gaming content creators to monetize their work which is something Qlan will actively address. Gaming is much bigger than just going pro and Qlan will facilitate a place for gamers, creators and orgs to bond over their passion for gaming and bolster their universes. ``

Qlan envisions to become the most trusted and secured platform for the gaming and esports community in the coming days. They’re currently building an early access waitlist which has already seen over 10,000 sign-ups within a span of two weeks.

Social Handles

Website: www.qlan.gg
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/qlan/
Instagram: @qlan.gg

SOCIALHOSE.IO Announces Enterprise Social Listening Tools

Scalable and flexible pricing to democratize media monitoring

DALLAS, March 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, nothing has really changed - but everything did. People still work hard, read emails, go to "meetings," shop, and the list goes on. The pandemic has only pushed the "fast forward" button of the online world, the internet of things and the virtual everything. SOCIALHOSE.IO, a social listening agency, makes listening affordable to smaller businesses looking for enterprise-level solutions needed to keep up with the pace of today's business environment.

Although companies and marketers work hard to sell products and services with tens of marketing and advertising emails on a daily basis, trying to catch up in the new virtual world, they often fall short of understanding exactly what their customers need or want and, thus, communication becomes less effective. That is where SOCIALHOSE.IO is most needed - to give brands the tools to get the insights they need to communicate more effectively, helping them both see and analyze sentiment, trends and reputation, among other things.

 Algorithms, offers, DIY platforms, applications, websites, money spent on campaigns, media and content can crumble the second a teenager posts a video on TikTok, getting millions of views. Meanwhile, television commercials, radio ads and even online campaigns go unnoticed with skip mode or get flushed with the break. People are paying money to avoid advertising that is not built on knowing exactly what customers need.

Working, and coming up with solutions that answer today's challenges, is not enough anymore. Hitting the fast forward button is a matter of do or die. The way brands think about online marketing and brand reputation, starting with the way they listen to online conversations, is how their brands will survive. That is why having the right tools is essential.

Mo Elzubeir, CEO at SOCIALHOSE.IO, explains: "The pandemic has created a present and urgent need for enterprise-level business tools without the unnecessary friction."

Having the exact data is the starting point, but controlling the flood of data has become more challenging. The volume of information available has become so overwhelming that without the right tools to capture and understand it, it is useless. With SOCIALHOSE.IO, a flexible, affordable social media tracking platform, brands, marketers and business owners can listen and take charge of how their brands are perceived by consumers, journalists and influencers.

"What we have done is create a bite-sized menu of tools and resources from social listening to consumer insights. This allows our pricing to be aligned with our customers throughout their different growth stages," continues Elzubeir.

SOCIALHOSE.IO combines AI and social listening to help businesses control the narrative of their brand and reputation in a way that matches these new challenges.

Wikipedia Co-Founder launches Anti-Facebook & Ad-Free Social Network

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has just launched a new social network that -- unlike Facebook or Twitter -- promises not to run advertisements or sell user data.

Called as WikiTribune Social or WT:Social, the new social media platform will be supported by donations from a group of users.

WT:Social, which is aiming to operate only on donations, is free to join, but new users are put on a wait-list, which can be instantly cleared if one donates money. The platform, which nowhere near as many users as Facebook, it told The Independent that it had managed to register over 200,000 members within days of its launch this month.

This was 2 days ago. 48 hours ago. I'm happy to announce we just passed 160,000 members! And it isn't slowing down yet.

On Monday we're going to ramp up the speed of admission on the waiting list, but you can skip ahead by inviting more people. https://t.co/WUU33sTS2m

— Jimmy Wales (@jimmy_wales) November 17, 2019

"Instead of optimizing our algorithm to addict you and keep you clicking, we will only make money if you voluntarily choose to support us — which means that our goal is not clicks but actually being meaningful to your life," Wales said in a post about WT:Social.

[caption id="attachment_138754" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Jimmy Wales (Image - twitter.com/jimmy_wales)[/caption]

Wales said advertising is the key problem of platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

"I've come to the conclusion that the biggest problem driving low quality media is that it has been purely advertising supported, and that the social networks which provide so much distribution are also purely advertising supported," he wrote in a blog post. "Facebook, Twitter and other social networks make revenue based on how long you stay on their site looking at and clicking on advertising. Engagement is prioritized over quality."

A video published Monday by the WT:Social team says Wales was inspired to create the platform because of "the superficiality of Facebook and Twitter," and that he hopes his new platform will "conquer Facebook," which he considers to be "full of clickbait and misleading news."

We are Leaving Facebook and A Propaganda Machine

Facebook is Evil and a new-age Propaganda machine for every thing wrong on this planet. From allegedly spreading far-right propaganda in order to try and influence the US Presidential elections to generating fake likes and comments, it seems Facebook is not serious about its loopholes to prevent damage to the world and its citizens, who are already suffering.

Just today, an another unethical practice by Facebook has been uncovered.

Although there are few good people and entities on the largest social network that are spreading some sense, they however are failing ahead of deep pockets of "Evil Powers".

The Mark Zuckerberg promoted company is causing more harm than good to any society. From spreading fake news covering up rape of 8-year-old girl in Jammu & Kashmir to defaming Nobel prize laureate Amritya Sen and his daughter, I have had seen all this running over Facebook, which started as community for college students but ended up into cover-up tool for politicians.

We, www.indianweb2.com, therefore quit Facebook as a symbol of protest and it doesn't even matter as we're not hugely followed over Facebook. From 1200 AM Indian Standard Time, we'll remove our everything on Facebook.

Nevertheless, there few loyal readers of Indianweb2.com following us since 2007. To them, we humbly request them follow on other social media platforms as below:

• Twitter - http://twitter.com/indianweb2/


• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/indianweb2-com


• Daily Email Subscription - http://eepurl.com/cqzycH

Top Image by Jan Tinneberg on Unsplash

Four High School Girls Built Anonymous Social Network To Support Mental Health

A group of high school female makers built an anonymous social network called Trill, that allows users to safely express themselves in a supportive environment, while building tight knit communities. The name 'Trill' came from a combination of the words True and Real, which both describe the type of content the Trill team aspire to have on Trill.

After discovering that approximately one half of transgender teens attempt suicide, five high school girls set off to create a safe and supportive virtual community for teens in January 2018.

Trill Project was built by five high school girls -- Ari, Izzy, Georgia, Sara and Alexandra, who wanted to launch an application with a widespread positive influence around the world, that would make a serious impact on people's lives. The Trill's team then raised a small seed round to bring Trill to the world.

[caption id="attachment_124827" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Team of The Trill Project[/caption]

Curated, moderated, and private, the Trill Project is an app, currently available for iOS users only, that fosters high-quality communities built upon support rather than judgment. According to the Trill, users are confident in their safety and benefit from hearing others from around the globe share and relate to their honest thoughts.

To date, Trill is now a supportive anonymous community of over 13,000 people. While anonymous-based apps are incredibly difficult to moderate, they’ve found early success in countries with restrictive speech or cultures and within the worldwide LGBTQ+ community, who often can’t safely discuss their sexuality.

Moreover, unlike angry rants on Twitter, Trill claims to prevent hate, bullying, prejudice and unkind comments on its community platform by having community moderators, who flag posts that don’t uphold its community safety standards. These moderators are also training Trill's own machine learning algorithm, which the team will implement on Trill once they have enough data from flagged comments.

As a mobile app, Trill is currently available for iOS users only and non-iOS users can submit their anonymous messages at its website here.

Users, on Trill, can post text, questions, images, or links, in addition to commenting on others’ posts.

Speaking about mental health apps in India, we have had covered two startups - Touchkin and Juno Clinic. While Touchkin has created a mental health chatbot ‘WYSA’, Mumbai-based Juno Clinic offers mental health counseling and treatment through both online and offline mediums.

Via - Producthunt Blog

Two Ex-Executives of RockeTalk Launches 'VOIZD' - A World’s First Audio Based Anonymous Social Networking App

It's 2016, and it's no secret that the world has become a place where no one can voice their opinions without being judged or trolled by people holding different point of views. Whether its politics, a social subject or any other topic; you just can't escape the wrath of the people having different ideologies than yours. This is the very reason that many of us prefer keeping quite or just distance ourselves from expressing ourselves altogether.

This is the very dilemma that Sameer Agarwal, co-founder, VOIZD, faced during the 2013 general elections and post elections phase, which prompted him to start working on a mobile app called Voice Without Fear. A part of parent company Voizd Inc., Voice Without Fear, is an anonymous mobile app which gives everyone and anyone a platform to freely express their opinions and thought in their own voice without the fear of getting judged, labeled or trolled.

The USP of the app is that the users get to share their views/opinions anonymously and in voice without the entire persistent real name trapping of other networks. A user can upload a 30-second anonymous (optional) audio clips to express their thoughts.



The app, which is being touted as a network of real people expressing their real thoughts, makes sure that their users' identity remains fully protected, so that they can be 100% themselves without having to filter their opinions according to society rules. Users get a non-judgemental platform to divulge their deepest of secrets to an unknown audience, and respond to each others secret confessions or questions. The app, which was beta launched in Sep 2016, comes with content discovery based on trending topics, emotions, proximity, and relevant topics.

It was during the much-hyped 2013 general elections and post elections phase that Sameer realised that openly expressing his view points about the elections was inviting him death threats and troll attacks. At first, he thought it was a one off thing and would boil down in a few days. But, he soon realised that our country has become intolerant towards opinions and thoughts which are divergent from mainstream.

While this particular incident did motivate him to start working on the app on paper, what really pushed him to bring it from paper to reality was a conversation he had with a close acquaintance. During his conversation, he realised that almost all the traditional social spaces that are live today are owned by English speaking Audience and people who are not very comfortable with English or written form get hard end of the stick. This is why he decided to have Audio/ Voice based expression as the mainstay of the App, so that everyone gets to speak their mind. In addition to giving everyone an opportunity to speak, what voice also does is, it keeps the essence, emotion, tonality of the person's opinion/view fully intact, which leads to a deeper connect between the poster and the listener.

About the Founders

Sameer Agarwal, Founder, VOIZD, holds a MBA in Internal Business and Marketing, and has a 10 year experience in entrepreneurship. He was most awarded winner in Mobile Marketing in the earlier venture (2013-14). Some of his professional accomplishments include acquiring 20-million users for RockeTalk as it’s CMO, with a hyper-lean budget and achieving a $ 2million revenue as Ad Sales Revenue Head within 16 months. He also has coss function experience in Mobile Tech, Marketing and Sales

Pooja Daswani, Co-Founder, VOIZD, is a specialist in Campaign and Audience Management with a 6 year experience in Mobile Social Media and a 3 year experience in Design and User Experiences.

Journey till now...

The VOIZD beta app, which was only exposed to just 100 people in mid Sep this year, has now organically grown to over 2000 users. It is now doing over five thousand posts and over one lac public conversations, from topics ranging from Relationships, Gender issues, Fashion and Abuse. According to their trends, 70 % of their current users are women and are highly vocal.

VOIZD is currently bootstrapped by the founders, though the team is meticulously working towards growing the network further and is looking for funding.

One of the best things about Voice Without Fear app, is that it is completely sign up hassle free. This means, all one has to do is download the app and start expressing themselves and get the true taste of freedom of speech.

Soon You Could Edit and Delete Sent WhatsApp Messages

They say, "Spoken words can't be taken back." But, popular messaging app, WhatsApp is reportedly working on a way to let its users edit and delete sent messages.

According to information posted on WABetaInfo's Twitter channel, a popular channel for all the latest WhatsApp news and speculations, the 140 characters social networking site is currently meticulously working on a feature that will allow WhatsApp users to edit and delete their sent messages. WABetaInfo claims that it recently came across the feature in WhatsApp's 2.17.1.869 beta build for Apple's iOS operating system.

It is interesting to note that this would be the first time that WhatsApp would introduce such features to its popular app since it debut in the year 2010.



While the edit option will allow a user to make changes in an already sent message, the revoke option will delete the selected sent message. In place of the deleted message, the recipient will see a text displaying, "Sender revoked the message."

https://twitter.com/WABetaInfo/status/809150861268152321

WABetaInfo even tweeted a video showing the revoke process in action. As shown in the video, in order to delete a sent message, all one has to do is tap and hold on the sent message to be deleted so as to bring up a list of options. This list of options will include the “revoke” option, selecting which will delete the said message entirely from the conversation. The video also gives us a hint that the revoke option could also be applied to read messages, as WhatsApp’s blue check marks can be clearly seen in the video before the messages are deleted. Currently, WhatsApp only allow users to delete messages on their own devices while the deleted messages remain visible to the recipient of the messages.

Though currently the speculation only pertains to iOS devices, it can soon be expected to be rolled out to Android devices, too.

In addition to the revoke and edit options, WhatsApp is also testing another feature on its iPhone beta app that will allow users to preview the contents of archive files - such as a ZIP or a RAR - shared with them by another user.

Earlier this month, WhatsApp finally brought two new features - animated GIF image support, and streaming videos while they still download to its Android app. Previously, these were only available to users of WhatsApp beta.

Introducing Mastodon - An Open Source, Decentralized Version Of Twitter

If sharing your thoughts on social media platforms is an important part of your daily life, then this particular news piece might breathe in a new freshness in your social media schedule.

Social media networking apps like Twitter and Facebook have often being accused of monopolising their users posts and feeds, and if this particular thing bothers you too, then now is the time to switch to Mastodon, a free, open-source social media server.

Mastodon, just like Twitter, is a microblogging platform. But, unlike the 140 characters social networking site, it is neither centrally owned and nor is commercial. This means, the users won't have continuously worry about what would end up happening to their posts and accounts if and when it gets acquired by some company.

The free, open-source social network server, is being pitched as a decentralized alternative to all commercial platforms, as it avoids the risks of a single company monopolizing your communication. Anyone can run Mastodon and join-in in the social network seamlessly.

However, there is one small glitch for Mastodon. Like any new social networking site, Mastodon is also currently facing a slightly tough time in getting news users to its platform. But, if you want to get the ball rolling, you can easily add your Twitter followers to your Mastodon profile by making use of this tool here. A user also has an option of running the app as a closed instance, as in keep it completely private to a specific group of coworkers or friends.

Donning a look almost similar to the popular Tweetdeck, Mastodon make use of a column-based user-interface for its user's timelines, mentions, and compose field. The platform gives its users the option to share their thoughts via links, texts and even attach media to their posts.

So, if you want to jazz up your daily social media schedule, then Mastodon is surely worth a try.

[Top Image: assets.mastodon.social]

Instagram Will Switch Its Feed From Chronological To Show Best Post first

The average Instagram user misses 70 percent of what’s in their feed, including great photos with tons of Likes and posts by their best friends. So today Instagram announced it will start rearranging the order of posts in its feed. Rather than strictly reverse chronological, Instagram will order posts “based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting and the timeliness of the post.”

Filtered feeds tend to score more attention from users, as there are few boring posts that push them to close the app and do something else. And at this point, Instagram is so ingrained in people’s lives that they’re unlikely to ditch it over this change. But with Instagram and Twitter both moving to algorithmically sorted feeds, getting seen on social media will become more of a competition than ever.

These changes mean if you don’t check your feed until the next morning but a friend whose photos you usually Like posted something awesome the night before, it could appear at the top of your feed even if it is hours old.

On the one hand, the relevancy-optimized Instagram feed will make sure you don’t miss great content even if you don’t neurotically check it all the time. You’ll be able to follow more accounts without worrying about them drowning out your favorites. And it will be easier to keep up with international friends who might normally post while you’re asleep.

At the same time, remixing the feed will make Instagram less useful as a real-time content feed because the most recent posts won’t necessarily be at the top. Users will have to worry about making their posts good enough to be chosen by the algorithm or their posts could be de-prioritized. And brands might lose the reach of a previously reliable marketing channel, the same way they did with Facebook Pages.

This is essentially how Facebook’s feed works, and how Twitter recently reconfigured its feed to work.

Please let us know your view on this feed change by instagram.

Solaborate is a Social & Collaboration Platform for Tech Professionals and companies

Solaborate is a new social and collaboration platform dedicated to technology professionals and companies, allowing them to connect, collaborate and create an ecosystem around products and services. Solaborate provides technology professionals a central place with the right tools and services to collaborate in real-time in order to make them more productive.

Today, Solaborate has launched into public beta and welcomes wider use of its real-time communication and social productivity tools with the launch of its public beta and a new Solaborate mobile app for Android. Integrating most of its currently available Web features, through Solaborate’s mobile app users can access personal, company, product and service profiles while sending and receiving messages, posting on walls, asking questions, providing commentary, discovering people, companies and more.



In May, Los Angeles Based Startup -Solaborate has received $1M in seed funding, which the company has used to perfect its platform, taking it from private to public beta in just five short months. As part of this move, Solaborate now offers audio calling, video conferencing, file sharing and screen sharing along with social and collaboration capabilities via easy, powerful integrations with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+.

Solaborate is a new way for the technology community to be more productive. Technology professionals and companies are invited to connect, collaborate and discover opportunities while creating an ecosystem around products and services. The public beta will feature top global technology companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, SAP, Facebook, IBM, Samsung and Cisco. Users can now post on a wall, follow, message, share rich media content and much more.

Unlike other social and collaboration platforms, Solaborate allows video calling straight from the browser and simultaneous use of screen sharing with video calling, without downloads or plug-ins. Users can also send instant messages and share photos and rich media files straight from their browser. Companies can use Solaborate to support and demonstrate products and services while offering a more personalized customer experience.



"We are excited to announce that Solaborate is now publicly available both on the web and mobile to everyone in the technology ecosystem. Our mission is to connect technology professionals and provide a dedicated place for you, your company and your products and services by providing all the tools and services to allow you to be more productive. We understand that it’s important for technology professionals to be able to stay connected and engaged, whether they’re at the office or on the go," said Labinot Bytyqi, the Founder and CEO of Solaborate.

Vebbler is Promising New Personal Social Network of Indian Origin

India is the number 2 market for Facebook after the US. A and thus a successful homegrown network could create stiff competition, that is why a Mumbai based web startup - Vebbler is a new promising personal + social network launched in beta that claims to have more meaningful conversations with different relationships in their lives without one aspect of their life spilling into another.

Today you will find that each and every member of society is having online social presence via different social networks such facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. our parents, teachers, colleagues everyone is on social media. There is a need for a more evolved way of connecting which can help people easily segregate every relationship into different layers and give them a personal space to share with each of them and Vebbler claims to address this.

The UI and look-n-feel of Vebbler resemble of  Google plus layout however the former is more intuitive and engaging and this is what a social network should have for its user base. Vebbler provides a 'layered' two-way relationship model as part of the 'core user experience' called as Crowd Layering Model and Vebbler is first social web startups in India designed on Crowd Layering Model (CLM).

There is also a growing echo among avid social media users that networks have become very impersonal, cluttered and privacy dead. As a product Vebbler offers an intimate, personal, clutter-free and privacy-aware platform to connect with the people who really matter. The portal has also launched a mobile-friendly version of Vebbler.

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Vebbler launched into beta on July 23^rd_, 2013. Here’s a sneak peek into what makes Vebbler different from other products in the market:

1. Social + Personal: In a big, open world of the Internet, here is a platform for you to connect with your true friends most valued relationships. If other networks are newspapers, Vebbler is more like a personal diary, a place where you can be yourself and express yourself freely.


2. Relationships beyond Friends: Today, our parents, teachers, colleagues and even bosses are present on social media. There is a need for an evolved method of connecting, which can easily help a user to layer their friends and other relationships, such as workmates and family.


3. Design by Discipline: A great product is not about what you make, it’s about how you present it’. With Clean typefaces, flat icons, simple two column layout and responsive photo galleries, Vebbler puts design at the heart of its user experience.

At launch, Vebbler will introduce with the following features:

 

• Clubs(for personal sharing): Clubs are a core element of Vebbler’s user experience. Today, two way relationships need to be layered in a seamless and user-friendly way. Clubs allows a user to add a person into different layers, such as friends, family, workmates and acquaintances. This enables a user to have an entirely separate space for sharing with each relationship.


• Followers (for public sharing): While keeping the closest 500 people in your Clubs, you can follow as many people you find interesting. This makes Vebbler a great platform for public conversations too, while keeping your private life intact.


• Bigger, Better Photos: Profile photos are big again and photographs are stored in high quality, making Vebbler a delightful platform for photographers and photography enthusiasts.


• ~Wavetags: Move over Hashtags. Now, start a ~Wave! Build conversations in real time, follow waves that interest you and see its popularity with the Wave-O-Meter.


• Search: Social search is beyond searching things by name. Searching interests, photos, waves and conversations around a particular topic creates a more intuitive search experience.

Vebbler is now have users from 51 countries and 370 cities and soon introduce new features such as - location-based sharing, automated and custom Clubs along with more features for photos.

twiup.com : A twitter app to discover people relevant to your likes

While browsing the web whenever you visit any site and if you liked the person or the site and wish to follow them on twitter then we are redirected on the twitter where we could easily hit the follow button. There is an easier alternative in this regard which is brought up by a recently launched web-app. The idea on which this web-app is based on is awesome and revolutionary.

Twiup.com is a web-app that lets you find and discover relevant people who have similar interests as of yours by just browsing a directory at Twiup.com. You can easily discover people you really want to follow.

To get started with Twiup, all you need to do is just login in your twitter account using Oauth method and allow access to the application. Moreover, to find people of your likes you just need enter few tags or keywords that suits to your interest the best and rest is done by twiup, it will perform the time consuming search for you and then allow you to take actions and select people you would like to follow. This web-app also allows you to find the most influential people in the respective field you are looking for on the basis of what people have voted.



As everything has its pros and cons so this web-app also has. I have already pointed out the pros. The cons are that, this web-service is not free and according to me $8 per month is bit high for this service. The directory it filters out as per your tags is not up to the mark as it doesn’t shows the most influential people, at least for now, obviously it may show up when the all the people will join it.

However, the idea behind the service is good and can do better in future, if implemented in a planned way.

What do you think about this web-app? Try discovering relevant people on your topic with this app and check whether you end it right or not?

Google, Microsoft & LinkedIn Unite for Open Web Sharing Protocol - OExchange

Clearspring along with Google,Microsoft and LinkedIn introduced an open web sharing protocol - OExchange to establish a common way for services to receive, discover and share content to social media sharing services and how sharing tools can read and set a user's sharing preferences.This open web sharing protocol actually established a interoperability into social web to offer links to sharing services and for sharing services to design their API endpoints.

Digg, Delicious, Stumbleupon, Postereous and every such social media service has a different integration scheme and providing access to all these services is difficult through one party tool or so using third party tools such as AddThis etc. OExchange solves this problem by defining an open protocol for third party sharing tools to discover and send content to these services.

This open web sharing protocol is already got support from Google (Google Buzz), Microsoft, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, Echo, Instapaper, Posterous, PrintFriendly, Springpad, Webs and yfrog (Imageshack). Moreover, Google Buzz and Instapaper are the first such service to have got OExchange protocol implemented.

OExchange provides a simple and common for all integration method for publisher to get their URI/ Links to be shared on social media services supporting OExchange. For social media services the protocol provides a more discoverable and thats too by visitors own choice. A discovery generator tool has been provided by OExchnage for easy implementation of protocols for existing or new social media & sharing services.

OnlineCouples.com - Online Networking for Couples

OnlineCouples.com, is an online community for couples who found their beginnings on a dating website, in a chatroom, or any other online medium. Moreover, the portal is founded by an online couple themselves - Abby Tankenoff and Santiago Merea who met through eHarmony, an online dating site.

OnlineCouples.com, not to be confused with any dating site is an online community for couples who found their beginnings on a dating website, chatroom, or any other online medium. Here you can meet other couples using social networking features like chat, message, bookmarks, blog etc.

On a second thought, the portal is an example how people from different streams and professions are attracting towards the dot com sector obviously when creators of respective online entity are mentioned in their press releases they don't mean it literally when it comes to technically developing and designing it, what they really mean is their strong willingness to show that are also wants to be part of ever growing social media/ networking phenomena.