Sokcheng Seang: From a Personal Blogger to a Co-founder of Wapatoa
By Liny Slot, I’mACE Intern
“I’ve got some information that really helps me and I want to share it with other people so it will help them too. Then I started blogging and that was the time I realized my specialty is in writing.” – Sokcheng
Recently, Wapatoa has become a famous websites for Cambodian youth because it covers a lot of important topics around the different aspects of life. We asked Sokcheng, one of the co-founders of Wapatoa, to have a conversation with us by sharing her experience on how the website was founded.
At the coffee shop inside ACE TTP Campus, the atmosphere seemed to be dynamic when Sokcheng met the I’mACE team. She was indeed full of energy and excited for the interview. With a big smile, she responded to the interview questions well, starting with her introduction. Below you will learn about the story of Wapatoa.com and its co-founder, Sokcheng Seang.
Sokcheng’s journey of becoming a co-founder of Wapatoa started with her interest in life. She always read books to search for useful information related to how to enjoy life, for example, how to have a better and happier life. Besides, she has the desire to share her knowledge with other people. She started to create her own personal blog, but only a handful people knew about it. She later had the idea to broaden her work – through creating a website where the public can read the posts in both Khmer and English; that was when Wapatoa was born.
Wapatoa is a bilingual website, involving a range of topics such as art, science, careers, and so on, which talks about what makes life meaningful. A few posts are written every week by the co-founders, including Sokcheng, and the goal is for readers are to apply these tips in their lives.
She even expressed her views on society; she stated, “I feel like there are so many interesting things happening in Cambodia, but most youth don’t know about them because they don’t read the newspaper or official media, so I try to highlight them on the website; for example, the effect of using the Internet on our habits. We also talk to interesting people like artists and entrepreneurs, so that they can share their life experiences with our readers.”
Although she’s a blogger, she was not shy to open up her challenges with writing. She has to make all of her articles based on true stories or research to make the article fun in order to make them interesting for the readers, so that readers can get engaged with the website. Each of her articles is carefully written before publishing. “Whenever I write, I have a dictionary next to me, so that I can check any words I am unsure about. Also before saying according to [this research], I really need to go through the research article, so that I can make sure it is a credible source,” she said.
Cambodian youths between 15 and 25 years old are the target audience of Wapatoa though all are welcome to read the website. “It seems like this age group is curious and eager to learn more, but they don’t know how. They don’t know where to start or what books they should read. I think they are the most eager to read the content we’re delivering,” she said.
Surprisingly, the feedback received has reached beyond her expectation; so much positive feedback has been given in a short time. She excitedly said, “In some events, I have been talking to younger people, those in high school, about the website and some of them really find it useful. They told me that when they want to read something that matters, they know that Wapatoa is there for them.”
Lastly, she concluded her future plan which is to make Wapatoa more widespread, enabling audiences from different backgrounds and ages, besides Cambodian youth, to read it. She wants everyone to absorb knowledge and get benefits from it.
To read the articles available on Wapatoa, please visit https://wapatoa.com or you can also check their content on Telegram, Facebook and through their newsletter.