Popping The Internet Filter Bubble With Aussie Startup Refni
Melbourne entrepreneur Xiao Han is one of the ten incredibly talented female founders participating in the innovative SheStarts accelerator program run by BlueChilli. Xiao Han’s startup Refni brings a radical new twist to the internet discovery engine technology, a market currently dominated by Google. Refni’s story stands out from that of many other ‘disruptive’ tech companies, in that it is deeply intertwined with the personal life experiences of its founder, and stems from her novel objective of enabling people to experience each other’s lives across the barriers of culture, language and politics.
Beginning of the Refni story
Refni founder Xiao Han Drummond she has nurtured a tremendous curiosity about the world and its diverse human cultures from a very young age. A turning point in her life came when at the age of nine, she travelled with her mum from the bustling heart of Beijing to start a new life in the suburbs of Melbourne. In her adopted home, Xiao Han stepped out of the familiar environment of her childhood for the first time, living with her South African-born stepfather and immersing herself in the multicultural melting pot that is Australia, absorbing new ideas and challenging her own beliefs.
Xiao Han’s life changed forever when the internet came to Melbourne. As she explains, “All of a sudden, I could chat to someone in New York, lounge-travel to Vanuatu, and learn what it’s like to live in Jo’burg. For me, the online world was about diversity, openness and exploration: a place where I could discover people and places that I never even knew existed, and to broaden my thinking.”
Her curiosity led to post-grad studies in media and marketing followed by several challenging corporate roles including Marketing Manager at General Electric and many top performer awards. At GE, she was able to understand first-hand how data on can be used to carefully tailor messages that ultimately influenced people’s purchasing decisions.
The “Internet Filter Bubble”
About the same time, Xiao Han became increasingly aware of the phenomenon of the “internet filter bubble”, caused by personalisation of content for each internet user by companies such as Facebook and Google, based on their history of likes, clicks and shares. Consequently, people got trapped into comfort zones and were denied the opportunity to explore the unknowns of the world as was possible during Xiao Han’s childhood years.
Xiao Han realised that internet filter bubbles were taking away the freedom of information, a key promise that attracted early adopters to the internet. Thus there was an urgent need for a new kind of internet discovery tool and that could break through filtered content and “help people see the digital world through the eyes of someone else.” This is the core value proposition behind her tech startup Refni.
Where is Refni right now?
As a part of the SheStarts program, Refni has been offered AU $100 thousand in pre-seed funding as well access to valuable mentoring, development and consulting services that will turbo-charge the growth of the venture in the coming months.
At the core of Refni lies Xiao Han’s philosophy that empathy and inclusiveness are the driving forces behind creation and innovation. She has blended her personal narrative with her career experience in marketing and media to bring this philosophy to life through digital technology. By using Refni’s internet search tool, she is hoping that internet users will be able to discover more about the world and redefine what is possible. In an age in when cultural insularity seems to be the source of significant conflict, it will be very exciting to see how Refni plays a part in bringing people together.
[This post was originally published on my personal blog www.shusgreenpatch.com]
