Rickshawvalas & Web 2.0 Local Rickshawvala becomes Brand Ambassador

PRLog (Press Release) – Sep 27, 2007 – “There’s a little bit of rickshawvala in all of us” jokes Satwant S. Sobti when asked why his newly-formed company hareepa!com has hired a rickshawvala to spread awareness about their website. Their launch campaign includes a humorous video viral “Gang of Rickshawvalas II” which showcases the rickshawvala performing various stunts and dances.

Sobti is the Founder and CEO of hareepa!com, an online portal that allows Indian users to connect with like-minded people through matching up similarities of their profile and interests with other users’ profiles. “It’s really simple – you fill out your profile and one click later, hareepa!com’s similarity engine matches you up with the most similar people in your area” says Sobti. “The whole process takes 1-2 minutes and the results are extremely relevant; best of all, it’s free of cost” adds Sobti, a recently arrived NRI from the U.S.

When asked to elaborate on further virtues of hareepa!com, Vipul Narula, IT Head of hareepa!com, talked about the fact that hareepa!com represented a safe and credible medium where a person can come to interact with real, like-minded people he/she did not previously know. The mobile check of each user verifies the authenticity of the each person in the hareepa!com community and filters any potentially unacceptable behavior.

This could be a great advantage for hareepa!com as more and more India-focused social networking websites are mushrooming up every day. When asked how hareepa!com would compete in this market, Sobti replied “hareepa!com is serving a need in India today better than any of its competitors: making new friends”. According to a hareepa!com-MediaTurf joint survey conducted this year, 85% of users who visit social networking websites do so to make new friends; and while most of the 85% use Orkut to do this, Sobti is confident that hareepa!com’s similarity engine gives users more relevant results and a better way to interact. “Our features and technology simply allows us to do this better than our competitors” says Sobti.

The hareepa!com team operates out of Gurgaon with a team of 10 employees including recent recruit, Avnish Saxena who was lured away from competitor HumSubka.com. Saxena, who has great experience in the India’s Web 2.0 space, believes hareepa!com can become India’s biggest social networking site in 2-3 years. “This is a product that is truly catered to the needs of India’s youth—it’s finally here” says Saxena.

Time will only tell if hareepa!com is “the one” – in the mean time, you can check out their funny rickshawvala viral “Gang of Rickshawvalas II” and find your similar people by logging onto hareepa.com.