Yemeni Social Network Site Hopes To Rival Established Media

A group of young Yemenis have created a social media website, SocialPalz, that they hope will rival established social networking services.

SANAA, YEMEN (JULY 4, 2013) (REUTERS) - A young group of people in Yemen are hoping to rival social media giants with their new website, SocialPalz.

The networking site unites users based on their common interests and hobbies.The founder and CEO of the website, 24-year-old Yemeni Saeed Al Fagieh. launched the website with the help of other young entrepreneurs.

He said the group wanted to create a site that was easy to use and allowed people to search for other users based on their interests, including business, news, politics and celebrity gossip.

"Users want to get information as soon as possible, so the idea came that we create a social website, that contains the user's interests and supports the content," he said.

The group said that, as well as creating communities that share common interests, the site has a section for job seekers which allows people to post and search for jobs in their specific field.

Users can post and share information, ideas and other content on the site and search for others by interest group.

The website's designer, Osamah Al Shami, said site is user-friendly, with a format that allows people to easily find different sections and users.

"We tried to be consistent with the design of this feature, so that it's possible to provide the classifications and sections faster, through the display, and to be able to quickly reach them, without any difficulty or complexity," Al Shami said.

Al Fagieh said the number of people using the website had grown rapidly since its launch, with users posting increasing amounts of content to the site.

"About a month since the launch of the site, the number of users on the site exceeded 14,000 users, including 6,000 active members, and published posts are increasing by more than 23,000 in the week," he said.

The administrative and financial director of the site, Maher Al Rahomi, has big ambitions for SocialPalz and wants to rival established social media sites.

"In the future, we aim during this year to go beyond one million users, and God willing, that we will compete with the stronger networks, and our goal or vision is to be the leading social network in social networking," he said.

SocialPalz was launched on May 22 and has an Arabic and English version of the website.