How Yaika! came to be

Our CEO Valentin Ivanov had the idea of making this website a few years ago. Back then he wanted to attach a camera to his remote control car and then connect it to the Internet. The idea of driving around and seeing things while still sitting behind your computer seemed quite exhilarating at the time. But it might have had something to do with the popularity of the "Home Alone" movies. Unfortunately, that idea never became a reality. Valentin was also inspired by the fact that he was constantly abroad for business trips and therefore far away from home. So he began to think that it would be nice to be able to share all the experiences and sights with the rest of the family and friends. This is how the idea of personal broadcasting came to be.

Valentin got really eager to make this happen, when he one day discovered that he didn't like anything he saw on TV. He felt that he wanted a bigger say in what is shown on TV, be a part of the shows. Thus Yaika! was born. The name comes from "Ya i kamera" which is Russian for "Me and my camera". And that is what Yaika! essentially is. It's just you and your camera with the whole world in front of you so that you could share it with others by only pressing a button or two.

The team was assembled and started really working on the site in autumn 2007. It took time to properly formulate the concept, come up with the design and build a framework for the site. About 7 months was spent on the main programming, configuring the services and setting up equipment. Creating a website as complex as Yaika! from scratch is a lot of work and it hasn't been all fun and games. But in other words - Yaika! is actually almost a year old.

Active testing is still done by our team here at Yaika! We're constantly adding new features, testing if the servers can handle the workload and if the overall system is stable. A lot of internationally known professional consultants and web engineers are also involved in the progress. When Yaika! goes off beta this autumn, you can be sure that it will be a safe and stable environment.