Torun Digital: A platform for the youth
Bangladesh’s answer to Buzzfeed is a source of entertaining and educational content
The USA has Buzzfeed dedicated to their youth. What do we have?
The founders of Torun Digital had the same question. Back in 2015, while working in the same organisation, they felt compelled to create a platform for the youth.
With the hope of instilling values in the lives of the youth, they established Torun Digital in 2017.
Under Sonia Bashir Kabir's guidance, the platform devotes itself to making entertaining and educational content – plus campaigns – for millennials and generation Z.
The present chairperson of Torun Digital is Sonia Bashir Kabir and the founders work in collaboration with different brands to create content.
Rafeed Chowdhury, one of the company's co-founders, told The Business Standard that their motto is to empower the present generation through education and entertainment. Their slogan is "Impact for the youth, by the youth."
They strive to provide age-appropriate content on their website. Sometimes they post awareness campaigns, and other times, pure entertainment.
Torun Digital participated in Startup World Cup 2020 where they were among the eight finalists.
Constantly inspired by their enthusiastic chairman, they have worked with Microsoft and Young Bangla.
In collaboration with Microsoft, they led a campaign named "Digital Literacy Skill" in 2018 with the slogan "Each one, teach one." This campaign invited people aged from 15-30 to share pictures of themselves teaching someone about digital literacy. This included teaching the elderly about how to use social media or to crosscheck the authenticity of news published on social media.
They also ran a unique campaign where they worked on reducing the generation gap by celebrating Grandparents' Day. The winner of this project received a coupon for free health check-ups for a year at Praava Health.
They have also created content – available on their website – on topics including, "Violence Against Minorities in Bangladesh" and "Getting Rid of the 'Boy Code,'" to raise awareness among the youth about these issues.
They promote other startups on their website with the aim of fostering innovative ideas.
Sometimes they publish interviews with influencers. Rafeed personally reaches out to them via LinkedIn.
Torun Digital has an internship programme open to university students who are active in extra-curricular activities and university clubs. The internship works towards developing public speaking – plus analytical and technical skills –among the youth.
Recently, they have been thinking about introducing "Torun Speak," like TED Talks, to motivate the youth.