Amma Stirring Up the Masses on the Internet
For immediate releaseMarch 30, 2000
Auckland, New Zealand-- Who is Amma?
"Yes, it's a question we receive all the time," says Srinivas Rao, Marketing Manager for Ammas.com (www.ammas.com), one of the largest and most successful Indian cooking sites on the Internet.
"I can say that she is a real mother and grandmother," he hints, as "Amma" means mother in many Asian languages. "I can say that she is from a village in Andhra Pradesh and that she now lives in Hyderabad. But we try to keep her identity a secret. As long as people appreciate her cooking tips and other motherly advice, why should it matter who she is?"
But for many Internet users interested in Indian cuisine, questions about Amma's identity and background are taking on a greater significance. What's her name? Is she really a traditional Telugu housewife with almost no computer experience? And how did she possibly make such a big name for herself on the Internet?
The answer, explains Mr. Rao, is knowledge.
"In today's marketplace," he says, "knowledge is an extremely valuable commodity. Amma has a tremendous store of valuable knowledge. Just because you don't have knowledge about computers, that doesn't mean you don't have any value in the information age. Computer programmers cannot create web sites in a vacuum. They need information."
Which is exactly what Amma has been providing her web site's users since the site began in India in early 1996 -- recipes, cooking advice, spice data, nutritional analysis and other information on Indian cuisine.
In fact, the web site was one of the first Indian recipe sites on the Internet -- indeed, one of the first individual sites to be launched directly out of India. What started with a very slow modem connection while Amma was temporarily living in New Delhi has now evolved into a California-based Internet venture called Culinova, Inc., with a projected growth rate of over 375 percent annually.
Amma's site alone receives over 1.2 million hits per month.
But not only does the site provide Amma's users with cooking information; it also leads the way in what might be called "cooking information technology." The way it manipulates data and interacts with users -- the system takes a completely new approach to the concept of culinary communications.
Most recently, for example, Amma has invited users on her site to publish their own recipes. She then judges the recipes, features the recipes she likes on her home page and awards prizes to the winners. All of it is conducted on-line.
"I am not the only Amma using the Internet," she explains in an email written in transliterated Telugu. "There are many mothers on the Internet. And many excellent cooks. These days the cookbook publishers only want celebrities. But the best cooks in the world are not necessarily the most celebrated."
Amma, however, is widely celebrated -- with more readers and fans in four years of publishing than even the best cookbook authors receive in a lifetime. Yet despite the site's success, and Amma's newfound celebrity status, Amma has not lost her motherly touch.
"I have been visiting Amma's site for many months now," explains Jim Micciulla, a US-based cooking enthusiast. "It continues to amaze me that in spite of its rapid growth and outstanding commitment to quality, the site has retained such a personal feel. It's really marvellous work."
And so it is that Jim Micciulla and other cooking aficionados around the world are discovering a mother they never knew they had. On the Internet. In India.
Whoever she is.
Ammas.com is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.ammas.com. Amma can be reached by email at amma@ammas.com. For more information about Ammas.com and Culinova, Inc., please send an email to info@culinova.com.
