Social media site arrives in ABQ

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A new social networking site called “At The Pool” launched at UNM this week, and aims to give students with similar interests a tool to find each other.

The startup social network was launched at UNM on Monday in order to help students break out of their social circles, engage with new people and, in contrast to most of the current social networks, get offline, said Alex Capecelatro, the founder and chief executive officer of At The Pool.

Capecelatro, who spent summer of 2007 in Albuquerque, said the site is important for UNM students because meeting other students with the same interests can be difficult at a large campus like UNM.

“If a freshman, for example, wants to find other vegetarians, international students, people who like poker, et cetera, there’s no easy way,” he said. “This leads to a campus that’s a bit disconnected, and a lot of people end up eating alone at lunch and not meeting the kinds of people they want to meet.”

Capacelatro said that unlike Facebook, where users can share information with people they already know, At The Pool allows users to meet new people based on their interests and locations.

“Facebook has become a place to stay in touch with people we already know — high school friends, family, et cetera, and it’s really bad at helping us meet new people,” he said. “At The Pool is the opposite (because) it’s all about meeting new people who share our interests and connecting the communities we’re part of.”

At The Pool, which was founded in Los Angeles, first went live in September 2011 and is used in dozens of cities across the nation.

Gloria Kim, an At The Pool user from the University of Connecticut, said that the network met her expectations.

“It is an interesting take on social media and meeting new people,” Kim said. “It is still just starting up, so it is not perfect and still has its kinks, but I see it potentially doing pretty well.”

Capacelatro said about 1,000 users join the social network every week, even though it is an exclusive network that requires special codes to sign up.

Capacelatro said the company has seen the greatest growth at colleges and that the company expects the campus community to respond well to the new service.

“Part of it (growth) is the value and how we make the campus more connected,” he said. “In the past, we’ve seen really fast growth on campus, and as such we expect hundreds if not thousands of UNM students in the first two months.”