The Hindu Business Line : Social networking site iYomu for ‘elders’

Chennai, Sept 27 Ever received a “Can we be friends?” request from a middle-aged person on a social networking site? Unlikely, as people in this age group usually do not frequent such sites.

Emails and phone calls are usually their best networking tools. However, surveys indicate that the 30+ age group is the largest producer of digital content, as individuals in this category can afford digital cameras, camcorders and other high quality digital electronics devices.

The absence of a mature online site for individuals to upload and share content led Mr David Wolf-Rooney to set up ‘iYomu,’ a social networking site for ‘grown-ups.’

Features

Targeted at the 28-55 age group, iYomu is a private secure site where every user is given a free email account and 1GB of free online storage space for documents, photos, videos, email and music. Unlike most other Web sites, iYomu has a feature called iYDNA that scientifically profiles users.

Consequently, one can choose profiles to add to one’s group.

Users can thus avoid spam.

Content on the site is made relevant to ‘elders’ and communities are categorised topic-wise such as law, mechanics, architect and even laundry — topics that an 18 year old would usually find boring, irrelevant and at times intimidating, Mr Rooney told Business Line via telephone. How many users does iYomu expect to register in future? Mr Rooney said it was premature to indicate, as the site was just 2 weeks old.

“But response has been good and Indians are already the fourth largest group on the site,” he said, without sharing the current registered user base.

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