Woop your discovery

The name is quite catchy and if you are a social media savant, chances are that you’ve already heard of Wooplr. Founded by Praveen Rajaretnam, Arjun A Zacharia, Ankit Sabarwal and Soumen Sarkar, Wooplr is essentially a social discovery website, providing a platform for people to unearth latest trends, food, decor and lifestyle experiences.

The beginnings
It all began from the questions they themselves found hard to answer, specifically on a weekend — What shall we do or where do we go tonight? Where are the best shops in the city to buy certain stuff? What is the popular food dish at this restaurant we are trying out for the first time?

“We realised that we were limited by what our friends knew. And we couldn’t change our friend circles to find out about them. But, there are people who knew and could help us out with their suggestions. We also realised that shopping — by nature — is inherently social. We would like to know what our friends are buying and where they are buying it from. And shopping is meant to be fun. We like to go shopping with friends, try out new clothes and shoes, and ask them for their advice. The joy and sociability of shopping was missing. And we wanted to bring that back,” says Praveen.

What makes it unique?
With popular websites like Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram that already have a larger audience globally, what is interesting about Wooplr is that, it is relevant to the Indian user.

Recommendations come from places and people around you. They believe in promoting word-of-mouth recommendations, thus incorporating a more realistic approach. “Instagram and Pinterest partially overlap in content (but not in concept).

And they largely remain irrelevant to Indian shoppers and foodies. They deliver content that is too generic. To compare with the categories Wooplr focuses on, many products are from e-commerce portals, which are not based in India. Also new, local and original content is hardly generated on Pinterest. Facebook reflects more of people’s personal lives. It’s very rare for someone to share their shopping and food finds. And when they do, it’s rarely about the product. It’s more about the place and the people they were with (the experience itself). There’s no focus there,” Praveen explains.

He further tells us that, currently, there is a lack of a platform in India where shoppers can find genuine shopping or eating recommendations and share their shopping finds with their friends; or find out what others are shopping for and from where. Wooplr makes it easier to look for interesting products, stores and eateries by subscribing to tastemakers outside their social circle. “If someone wants to find out where she could get custom-made cupcakes or hand-painted shoes in Koramangala, she’s more likely to find it on Wooplr than any other platform,” he adds.

What next?
The site only promises to get better from here. After being available in android devices, Wooplr has been launched on the Apple app store and has received positive reviews from users. Praveen tells us that they are focusing on making the website all the more engaging by adding new features based on user feedback.