TIRUCHY: Are you a fan of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or WhatsApp? But the associated trolls and abusers keep you away from it? Then, Paperpage is the destination for you! Curated by A Kiruthika from Tiruchy, this website is one of the top picks among users, with 6 million hits in a year and more than 70,000 regular visitors. What sets this website apart from others is the safety aspect, says Kiruthika.
What started as a vision to provide a platform for women sellers, soon blossomed into a full-fledged website. Kiruthika’s husband Ramprakash had created a website called Cifo, which he had stopped using. Then Kiruthika took charge of it and started a platform for women traders to sell their products. This website has almost every feature of Facebook.
Kiruthika was a teacher, but gave up her job after marriage. But, that did not stop this MCom, MPhil holder from dreaming big -- a safe space for women. And then she chanced upon the idea of creating a platform to help them earn a living. Six years from the idea’s inception, Paperpage was released last year, after undergoing beta testing.“Cifo was initially a website used to download PDFs.
When my husband left it, I started updating it. I got a few women on board and they were successfully able to sell their products. It was like a whatsApp group for women entrepreneurs in the beginning. As we got more users, they wanted a way to get their family on board. Thus began the process of innovation and change. Since Cifo was not used for a while, we had to change the name to Paperpage,” says Kiruthika.
The website has a newsfeed, my products, groups, events, messaging options, memories etc. While Kiruthika is the brain behind the website, she is supported by her husband and a team of 11 developers. Her husband, a lawyer, takes care of all the legal aspects.“We immediately take action against abusers. If anyone reports a profile, we look into it and ensure that action is taken soon.
The website is very user friendly and can be accessed by everyone. It has users from UK, USA, Malaysia, Australia too,” says Kiruthika. A sister concern called Videopage is in a testing phase now. Kiruthika also plans to get video calling and messenger for Paperpage and is trying to get government’s nod.