Couple launches web platform for families

It will help connect geographically scattered family members

Joint families are getting smaller and smaller and physical contacts between kin are becoming rarer. With the aim of uniting geographically scattered family members and connecting them, a couple in this city have developed a social networking platform, Parivartree.

The idea is to position this as an alternative to Facebook, which is more for connecting with friends, and LinkedIn for the professional circle. Started by Manoj L, a qualified chartered accountant, and wife Puja Tumulu early this year, Parivartree (meaning family tree) already has a little over 4,000 users. To get more it recently launched mobile apps on both the iOS and Android platforms.

"Parivartree allows users to create a family tree, discover their family tree and share photos, videos and thoughts with users on the platform," said Tumulu, a housewife but now chief executive of the company. "Unlike other social platforms, the focus here is on connecting the past to the present, not on garnering 'likes'. There are no unheeded messages or unwanted friend requests from unknown sources."

The idea came to their mind when Manoj's father passed away in December 2013, at his native place. When Manoj and his brother, a senior information technology professional, reached home, they found it difficult to inform the extended family. "My dad was the single-point contact with our relatives, since we were staying far away from our place of birth due to professional commitments. And, he had remembered the phone numbers of all our relatives by heart, instead of noting these down anywhere," said Manoj. He returned here with this problem and started hunting for solutions.

Apart from engaging with family and relatives, users can build and grow the family, sharing their thoughts, photos and videos with different circles of the family, through a 'tickle' feature.

The other features include 'studio', which allows one to create a repository of photos and videos with albums of family events.

And, 'events', which helps create and manage upcoming events within the family, making it easier to invite a multiple circle of families in one go. Recently, Parivartree has also launched a 'chat' feature in the mobile app versions.

According to both, one can grow the family tree horizontally and vertically to any number of members. There are also algorithms built in which allow the merging of two family trees.

"In today's mechanised world, all of us forget who all are related and who knows which celebrity is directly or indirectly connected to your family. Most of the time, people meet their close relatives only during family functions, probably once in three years, and never create a touch point again. Our platform enables one to create family bonding, which is missing," said Puja.

Though still early days, the couple believe the platform is continuously seeing more user interest. "The immediate goal is to increase the user base. Once there, we can look at revenue models, which could be in terms of offering a matrimonial service or advertising models like 'pay per click'."