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Photo: Blake Engelhard / The Daily Pennsylvanian

2015 Wharton graduate Blake Engelhard aims to use "swipe culture"to create valuableconnections and friendships throughNecter, a new social networking app.

The app is a connection/introduction app, College senior Olga Belyanina said, who is in charge of business development, so connections are made through mutual friends.

These mutual friends are the key to how the app works. The app gives users three categories to choose from: work, dating, and friendship. Friends can introduce mutual friends looking for the same thing whether that be someone to go to the gym with, a formal date, or just a study buddy.

Really what we see is creating a movement around being open about what youre looking for and helping others find the things that they need, Engelhard said.

Engelhard first gotthe idea for the app in January 2016 when he wastraveling for a consulting job.

Moving from city to city its really hard to meet new people, Belyaninasaid. [This is] a platform where you could meet people with a purpose.

The company is building off the recent success of companionship apps, which have tripled in the last two years, according to research from theDating Apocalypse.

The swipe culture and the swipe way of life is a way of connecting, Peter Groverman, an advisor to the company said. People are getting more and more connected every day that passes.

Groverman has been a part of focus groups that have helped develop different components of the app.

Its really easy to use, its very intuitive, Groverman said. You can navigate it with complete ease.

This ease of use didnt happen overnight. For the past year, Engelhard has worked to assemble a team to make his idea a reality.

Penn hasbeen an unbelievable resource in terms of having students come into the office and do focus groups and test the prototypes and things like that, Engelhard said.

The result is an app based on connections made by mutual friends, which Engelhard described as like Tinder, but less creepy, a little less weird.

Belyaninasaid something similar:In Penns environment we kind of find our little niches, we have our little bubble, she said. This will make it possible to build a community and raise awareness about whats going on in other areas.

Penn is the first campus the app is launching with, and it was officially released on theApp Store on Monday.

Necter is hosting a launch event at Allegros Pizza on Thursday from 10 pm to 1 am and plans to turn Penns late night pizza place into a club, complete with a band, a DJ and freebeer and pizza.

Groverman feels optimistic about the app's potential.

[Venmo] started in a dorm room and then boom it exploded and became such a phenom, Groverman said. This has all the hallmarks of that.

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Swipe right: Penn's new social networking app - The Daily Pennsylvanian

Hornet, the worlds premier social networking app, just unveiled the addition of social profiles and a discover feature, which will roll out across the Hornet network starting today on iOS, Android and the web. The addition of social profiles is the first time a gay social app has introduced follow and feed features, creating more opportunities to interact on a profile versus simply look at someones pictures.

The social profile feature is a great way to dynamically share new photos, updates and profile details to stay in touch beyond a static user page. Users will now see a scrollable profile feed on their and other users profile pages, and be able to follow their favorite guys latest updates and photos.

Sharing is caring: Users can also search and follow other users via their unique username, and keep up with their updates in their social feed. Users will be able to see what the latest buzz is with the guys theyre following, from the latest photos to profile updates, creating more opportunities to connect and socialize.

Hornets new discover tab feature also gives users a chance to discover who might be around them. Here, you can find guys through the app that may have a similar taste as you when it comes to drinks, parties and other events and common interests.

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Gay Social Network Hornet Unveils Social Profiles and Discover Feature - Unicorn Booty (blog)

VISAKHAPATNAM :The first college social network for students, Askpal (Askpal.com), a free online platform, specifically designed to foster student-to-student and student-to-alumni communication is now available to Vizagites.

College students across India can take advantage of this new type of social networking service to connect with friends, professors and alumni to get career advice and job referrals.

Askpal.com, mobile apps are also available on both iPhone and Android platforms. Students can create a community for their colleges where they can ask questions, get trusted advice from friends, professors and alumni, who are working and earn money while helping others, said Uma Suryapalem, president and co-founder of Askpal. Students can ask queries about internship opportunities, get job referrals, better place to live, find roommates or even ask for advice to study abroad.

Askpal recently completed a pilot programme where students from several colleges, including MIT, Stanford, UPenn, Case Western, Oregon State University and University of Washington asked and answered questions using Askpal.

Through the pilot programme, we could show how the students can use Askpal to create a community of their alumni, professors and peers, added Uma Suryapalem. People interested in joining their college communities can visit Askpal.com and search for the college under categories.

If a suitable community for a particular college is already available, they can immediately sign up. If a college community has not yet been established, they can create one and invite their alumni, professors and other students.

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Now, college social network Askpal.com in Vizag - The New Indian Express

Mobile social networking platform Momo has appointed TBWA Shanghai to manage its creative and brand strategy account.

Momo has tasked TBWA Shanghai with developing a 'fast-moving creative process' to transform the brands communications as it looks to drive growth in 2017.

The agency will support Momo to optimise the social user experience and build a strong brand image for Chinas third largest mobile social networking platform.

Joanne Lao, CEO, TBWA Greater China, said, Chinas social media landscape moves at speed; constantly innovating, challenging and changing. With over half of Chinas population accessing social media platforms, the ecosystem is complex and competitive.

As a leading platform, Momos ambition to continue to grow and forge greater connections with its customers makes it an exciting opportunity to develop work that shapes culture.

Wang Li, COO of Momo, said, Delivering our brand and products in a relevant and timely way is challenging in the complex communication environment we face. I believe TBWAs rich experience will help our brand maintain effectiveness and novelty in this competitive market.

The appointment, which followed a competitive pitch, is effective immediately.

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Chinese mobile social network Momo appoints TBWAShanghai to transform brand - The Drum

Online media use such as social networking and gaming could be strongly influenced by our genes, according to a new study by researchers from King's College London.

Access to and engagement with online media continues to grow at an unprecedented speed, and it plays an increasingly important role in the development and experience of people across all age groups. Nonetheless, people differ substantially in their use of online media and researchers are interested in finding out why people differ so much. For instance, do genetic differences between people affect their engagement with online media?

Published in PLOS ONE, the study looked at online media use in more than 8,500 16-year-old twins from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS). By comparing identical twins (who share 100 per cent of their genes) and non-identical twins (who share 50 per cent of their genes), the researchers were able to estimate the relative contribution of genes and environment on individual differences in engagement with a range of online media, including games for entertainment and education, as well as time spent on chat rooms, instant messaging platforms and Facebook.

Heritability was substantial for time spent on all types of media including entertainment (37 per cent) and educational (34 per cent) media, online gaming (39 per cent) and social networking (24 per cent). Heritability describes the degree to which differences between children -- in this case their use of online media -- can be attributed to inherited genetic factors, rather than the effects of their environment.

In addition, unique environmental factors accounted for nearly two-thirds of the differences between people in online media use. Unique environmental factors could include varying access to media sources within a family, such as one sibling having a personal mobile phone and the other not, or parents monitoring use of social networks more heavily for one sibling compared to the other.

Together, these findings challenge the belief that people are passively exposed to media and instead support a view that people tailor their online media use based on their own unique genetic predispositions (a concept known as gene-environment correlation).

Ziada Ayorech, first author of the study from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, said: 'Our findings contradict popular media effects theories, which typically view the media as an external entity that has some effect -- either good or bad -- on 'helpless' consumers. Finding that DNA differences substantially influence how individuals interact with the media puts the consumer in the driver's seat, selecting and modifying their media exposure according to their needs.'

Professor Robert Plomin, senior author from the IoPPN at King's College London, said: 'The key component of this gene-environment correlation is choice, such that individuals are not simply passive recipients of their environment but instead actively select their experiences and these selections are correlated with their genetic propensities.'

These results raise questions about personalised media and the extent to which social media 'filter bubbles' only expose us to information that supports our own point of view, while sheltering us from conflicting arguments.

However, Professor Plomin points out that individual differences would still play an integral role here: 'Where one person may seek online media that only supports their views, another may choose to also explore conflicting viewpoints.'

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Materials provided by King's College London. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Online media use shows strong genetic influence - Science Daily