Turkish engineer Ayşenur Kaya Yalçın and her team developed an application that aims for individuals, above the middle age mark, to age in a healthier way.
Yalçın, while studying chemical engineering in Türkiye, went to the United States for her master's degree and faced difficulty in establishing a bond with her mother at that time. She determined after her research that there was no practice relating to a healthy aging process in Türkiye.
She formed a team and started working on an application, that offers special content for individuals over the age of 50. The team started their entrepreneurial path at the Hacettepe Technokent Pre-Incubation Center and developed the "healthy aging application" Senyorapp, which appeals to middle-aged individuals.
Yalçın, who coined the idea of a mobile and Internet-based application that aims to enable individuals over the age of 50 to maintain their active and social lives with a continuous learning experience, and navigate their aging processes in a healthier and more efficient manner, said that their goal is to open up to the foreign market.
The founder of Senyorapp company, Yalçın, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that she decided to materialize her app after returning to Türkiye from the United States.
"Words like 'elderly or old' has not been installed in Senyorapp as if these words are prohibited. So we don't use old, instead we say 'senior.' We evaluate them not by their age, but by their experience. The app addresses people over 50 years of age specifically and helps them with healthy aging. We realize the requirements of the continuous learning experience, active life, as well as social life and their continuity digitally at Senyorapp. We have designed live and online events for people ranging from 30-50 years of age every week," she explained.
Stating that they actively work with gerontologists (a specialist in aging science) during the development and usage phase of the application, Yalçın stated that training within the application are also imparted by these experts, as the app includes content prepared by experts on the use of applications such as e-commerce, e-government and e-pulse.
Pointing out that they put more emphasis on digital literacy, Yalçın said: "The main purpose of Senyorapp is actually to ensure seniors lead an independent and enjoyable life in the future. We know that this will only happen by constantly renewing both digital literacy and general culture information."
Stating that it is possible to use the application with any smart device, Yalçın continued: "Currently, we have more than 4,400 users. We are growing by 30% on an average monthly-user basis and 40% of our users are actively using Senyorapp. It is a positive sign of growth and makes our first trials in the European market."
Expressing that they are the only startup in Türkiye in terms of age technologies, Yalçın said, "We think that the age technologies market will grow even more with the coming years. Türkiye is a deep blue ocean for us right now."
Melike Irmak, who works as an aging specialist in Senyorapp, stated that the experts who will work within the application also go through a training process, likewise, content producer experts started training after a short trial period, and in this way, a two-sided active model was formed.
Stating that she had the opportunity to observe middle-aged individuals more actively after she started working for Senyorapp, Irmak said: "We observe that seniors need a lot of help in terms of technology. Thanks to our application, we make them age more actively by closing those deficiencies. I think it has a great contribution to society in terms of technology."
