: Nineteen-year old Akash B. Chandran is on a high. Two applications that he designed on Facebook have had 10 lakh users within a week.
For Akash, the apps were not meant for monetary benefit through advertisements, but to create laughter with the element of humour that is the USP in his work. The applications, Ningale Pattiyulla Samsaram and Ningale Pranayikkunavar , have been fodder for several Internet trolls of late. Hilarious jokes related to State politics have also sprung up, thanks to these apps.
“I’ve been receiving lot of feedback on these applications. The main objective behind creating these was to bring a smile to the users and I think I’ve succeeded in that,” says Akash, who cannot hide his joy on learning that his applications have become popular.
The teenager, who is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Vocation (B. Voc) in Software Development at the Mar Ivanios College in Nalanchira, is a self-taught web designer and coder, who is credited with having created around 200 websites during the past three years.
It all began six years ago when Akash earned $0.001 per click through paid-to-click online advertisement. Later, an online forum ‘Money Earners Forum’ that he had created was sold for $200 after over 20,000 members joined the forum.
Resolving to take up web designing as his profession, Akash taught himself the basics of various avenues, including Facebook application development, affiliate marketing, search engine optimization, Wordpress designing and much more. Currently, he earns around Rs. 5 lakh a month, mainly through designing web portals, he says.
Hailing from Vellayani, Akash aspires to follow in the footsteps of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg by carving a niche for himself in the age of information driven by the Internet. He has set his sights on developing a web-portal that would enable any untrained user to earn income by working from home.
