Yaari
Yaari, an Indian social networking site founded by 26-year old Stanford alumnus Prerna Gupta, recently announced the release of Yaari 2.0.
“We have incorporated the feedback we’ve been receiving from our users for the past two years to make a more relevant product,” said Gupta, who is also the company’s Chief Executive Officer.
Yaari’s top priority for the new release was improving the site’s page load times. “Yaari 2.0 was built with the Indian user in mind, and that means building for slower connection speeds. I think you’ll find our new site is much zippier and easier to navigate than the previous version.”
Yaari also introduced what it calls “Flirt” features, which are icebreakers of various sorts allowing users to meet others on the site with similar interests. One such feature, called Hot Yaars, asks users to rate their counterparts on a scale from 1 to 10. Users can then see the Top 100 Yaars and keep track of how they stack up against the hottest in the pool.
Another central focus of the 2.0 release was security. “There’s a lot of online scams, spam messages and harassment on the big networks, and we want to make sure we are doing everything possible to protect our users from that.” To that end, Yaari 2.0 offers increased spam-detection and privacy options, allowing users to choose whom they receive messages from, and who can view their profiles.
“Yaars”, as Yaari’s users call themselves, now also have the ability to customize their profile pages, with unique wallpaper, pictures and fonts. Yaari 2.0 also offers specially designed Indian avatars for both men and women.
Yaari boasts a userbase of over 1.5 million users worldwide and sees its growth increasing dramatically over the next year.
About Yaari LLC
Yaari is a social networking site for Indian youth. The site was launched in September 2006 by two American-born Indians, Prerna Gupta and Parag Chordia, who graduated from Stanford University. Visit http://yaari.com for details.
