"A stranger started stalking my wife and sending her offensive messages... (later she told me that) many women encounter similar trolls daily," Tarun Katial, Founder and CEO of coto, told CNBC-TV18 in an exclusive interview. This deeply personal experience sowed the seeds of coto, a web3-based social networking platform exclusively for women.
Katial said coto's journey is one of innovation, driven by a commitment to enhance women's online experiences and provide them a secure and empowering space. With 250,000 users, over 550,000 active conversations, and more than 6,200 communities, coto is not just a platform — it has become a movement.
He elaborated on coto's approach to female empowerment: "coto provides an opportunity for women influencers to interact with their followers in coto communities and, more importantly, to earn tokens based on the content they produce."
“Women can join various communities such as Unstereotype Us, Let’s Talk Mental Health, Meri Marzi, to name a few, to discuss taboo topics like periods, menstrual health, careers, relationships, achievements, and moments. They can share their life stories with others by posting information, commenting, clapping, reporting, discussing, and connecting with other users,” Katial added.
Apart from this, women can set up online stores and sell products to other users through the app, he said. They also have the option to earn money by offering courses, consultations, boot camps, and workshops.
To ensure safety and security, coto uses AI and other advanced technologies, Katial said. "We're leveraging AI in novel ways... from facial recognition-led gender verification to deploying AI engines for content moderation and categorisation, we are integrating AI into every facet of our platform," he explained. Further, the platform employs blockchain to create a token economy, rewarding members for their contributions.
Katial teased an upcoming AI-powered Q&A feature, designed to encourage in-depth discussions and knowledge-sharing. He mentioned, "This feature will not be just revolutionary, it will be smart, facilitating in-depth discussions, encouraging curiosity, and empowering women to learn and grow."
Talking about what sets coto apart from other social media platforms, Katial listed AI-driven gender verification, decentralised community creation, confidentiality and privacy, and transparency and trust among the key elements.
Regarding future plans, coto intends to bring generative AI for text and vision closer to users, providing a more personalised experience. Katial said the platform will also expand the content graph and LLM strategy, enhancing multimodal content entity extraction.
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