New Endeavors
Graduating Northview student Albert Zhang launches his new social media platform Admeeted.
Senior Albert Zhang works on his new business in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Photos by Albert Zhang, Special
Bedansh Pandey, Staff Writer
With one of the largest economies in the world, America is what many deem the “land of opportunity” to create an enterprise that will change the world. Whether it be Mark Zuckerburg’s billion-dollar Facebook or Jeff Bezos’ trillion-dollar Amazon, a business idea can spark at any corner of the nation and blaze into an empire worth millions.
Starting a business, though, requires a breed of work ethic that is not typically expected from an ordinary teenager. But one of Northview’s finest, Albert Zhang, is no ordinary teenager. Zhang has already been admitted to one of the nation’s most prestigious institutes, Harvard University, and is also the owner of his own tutoring business, A to Z Tutoring. His most recent endeavor involves a live social media networking platform, known as Admeeted.
“I had the idea for this a few years ago because back in the day I always thought that the future of socializing would be live, and I think that’s kind of what we’ve seen in social media platforms,” Zhang said.
The platform, which is targeted primarily toward students and non-profits, for now, works by grouping people into small, intimate video calls and chats based on their majors, interests, and more to talk about shared passions and ideas. After a certain amount of time set by the host, the video calls will shuffle so that the members can meet a whole new group of people. As Zhang puts it, the platform is different from Zoom and Microsoft Teams in that it prevents large and crowded video calls, which can often be chaotic, by providing much smaller ones. It also allows users to reconnect with each other after the call has ended by saving the call groups. This unique take on online meetings is an idea that Zhang has had for quite some time now. He noticed the tendency of platforms such as Instagram, and in particular, Snapchat, to transition more from photos and text to primarily videos and text. Even one of the most popular apps, TikTok, can attribute its popularity to using video as its means of engagement.
The journey all began in January, during the early phases of website development, through which Zhang’s brother, Bill Zhang, also began to help. Then, during the second half of March, beta testing for the platform began through a Google Form with clubs and organizations from MIT, Stanford, Princeton, and the like. Then, finally, on April 8, Zhang officially launched Admeeted for public use. Since then, the platform has gained more than 6,000 users from some of the world’s most elite universities. According to Zhang, this rate of growth has been much higher than what social media giants such as Twitter, Facebook, and Zoom had when they first launched.
“What I’ve mostly been doing is that I’ve been contacting my friends, or there have been people that reached out to me that are also seniors. They hear about our platform, they hear about how fun the calls are, and they ask me to set up an event for the school. A lot of times, the students will invite me to their Class of 2024 group chats for the college, and I’ll let them know that I’m working on this app and let them know about an event that we’re having,” Zhang said. “So a lot of [the advertising] is primarily through word of mouth.”
Naturally, because it is a platform that allows people to socialize while still social distancing, the question arises: Was this created specifically for COVID-19, or did Zhang plan to launch it despite the outbreak? Being a senior, Zhang understands firsthand how frustrating it can be for events to get canceled. Harvard had to replace its regular on-campus Vistas Weekend––a three-day event where admitted students can get together and meet each other––with a virtual one. Since its release, Zhang’s website has been a big help to many organizations researching and providing relief efforts to COVID-19 as well, such as MIT’s Safe Paths and Stanford’s COVID Watch.
“If I were able to have launched the site earlier, I probably would have. But I think this is something, where, because our goal is to provide value to society and people, getting it out last Wednesday [April 8th] was the right move,” Zhang said.
Creating such a multifaceted platform with advanced algorithms and a design-savvy webpage has not been easy, however. While many others have been waking up at noon during quarantine, Zhang has been working tirelessly for almost 20 hours each day.
“Running a business has been a very eye-opening experience. Honestly, it’s nothing like what I expected because I have a tutoring business that I started a couple of years ago, and that was something that was really eye-opening for me as well, but it typically was only once a week,” Zhang said. “This is something that basically took over my life, but it’s something I really enjoy.”
Looking ahead, there seems to be a bright future for Admeeted, as Zhang and his brother are now working to build a sustained brand, refined platform, and products that go far beyond just the release to colleges and non-profits. As a matter of fact, the company is even looking to work with a venture capital firm to expand the horizons of the business.
“For people who are trying to come up with their ideas for their own benefit, the best place to start is not with ideas, but with problems. If you have a good startup idea, it’s probably going to sound like a really bad idea, because all the obviously good ideas have been taken by the big players like Google and Amazon. If you really do have one of those outstanding ideas, it probably won’t be as obvious,” Zhang said. “But that’s the best way you can create something of value for society.”
