World’s Most Cheerful App Goes Live

Shopzilla founder launches the 'like button' for the world around you

It’s time to Cheer: the world’s first positivity app goes live today! Farhad Mohit, Founder of BizRate.com and Shopzilla, launches Cheers (video: chee.rs/video), the first iPhone app built solely to help people express love and appreciation - for anyone, anything, anywhere!

Mohit, who sold Shopzilla in 2005 for $569m, brought together an all-star team from Google and StumbleUpon, as Cheerful, inc., in order to create socially powerful apps like Cheers.

Cheers aims to be the ‘like button’ for the world around you, but more meaningful, because you create, control and give voice to each cheer. 

There are over 500,000 iPhone apps. Until now, none of them have focused on celebrating love and appreciation in all its facets - people as well as places and things. Cheers is available for free download now. 

And what perfect timing! Valentines Day is around the corner, buzz around Social Media Week is building, and yet research just released by Gallup shows Americans have a deficit in positive thinking!  

Where is the love?!  

It’s where it’s always been: in the wonderful people, places and things in our lives. It’s just that too often we fail to appreciate and share this fact. Cheers is here to change all that, in a way that is fun, addictive and maybe more than a little contagious.  

‘Cheers lowers the barrier to expressing love and appreciation, making it fun and easy to do something we all feel, but have never had a dedicated place to openly share before,’ says Mohit. 

‘By offering such a space, it becomes safe to not only cheer the stuff we love, but increasingly the wonderful people in our lives as well. And when we do, those friends, teachers, heroes, and other loved ones, all in turn catch the Cheers bug and begin to share the love in their hearts too. What emerges is a truly beautiful reality: a living, growing chronicle of all the love and joy we’re surrounded by every day.’

 How it works - 5 steps to a more cheerful life 

1. Notice someone or something you want to express love or appreciation for
2. Open the Cheers app, snap a picture, add some loving words and share
3. Watch as it spreads on Cheers, Facebook, Twitter, via email and on the web
4. Feel joy as friends, followers and others appreciate, comment and reciprocate
5. Be inspired as you connect to other interesting, cheerful people using Cheers

Simple, yet powerful, it takes less than 30 seconds to create a Cheer. And, the more you cheer, the more ‘Cheerfluence’ you gain, allowing all to see the positive energy you’re creating and sharing with the world. 

Example Cheers

Delta Wright cheering her daughter Holland
Gary Craig Ervin cheers on the Sunflower Preschool
Kai Gradert cheers on the Documentary Urbanized 
Farhad Mohit, founder of Cheers, cheering his wife and second anniversary. 

All media enquiries

Frank Fredericks, global tolerance, New York, 1 917.514.2284,Frank@globaltolerance.com, @frankiefreds
Simon Cohen, global tolerance, London, +44 751 538 7314,simon@globaltolerance.com, @globaltolerance
Tessa Adelaar, global tolerance, London, +44 845 054 0064, +44 778 630 5538,tessa@globaltolerance.com, @tesalex

Interview and media requests

Farhad Mohit, founder and CEO of Cheers! is available for interview
Logos / Screenshots: http://www.chee.rs/about/press
Video: http://www.chee.rs/

Notes to editors

Cheers - to what you love!

Cheers is a fun social way to express love and appreciation for anyone, anything, anywhere. The Cheers app is available for free download in the App Store on February 9
 You discover a new amazing app that just has to be celebrated, you want to express your gratitude to that really good friend or you read a book that inspires you and your friends have to know about. Sharing love this way is contagious and could change the world! Cheerfluence is a measure of joy you are spreading via Cheers. It increases as your cheers are shared by you and others. Cheerfluence is social wealth - a growing tally of the positive energy you’re creating and sharing. www.chee.rs

Biography Farhad

Farhad is the founder and CEO of Cheerful, inc. In 1999, he created and led Shopzilla, one of the world’s largest comparison shopping sites, from inception through a $569 million sale to E.W. Scripps in 2005. And, even earlier, in 1996 he created BizRate.com which was one of the first and largest consumer feedback networks in the world, surveying tens of millions of people each each year.

The team

Farhad Mohit – CEO | Previously BizRate & Shopzilla, Founder
Matt Mastracci– CTO | Previously StumbleUpon, Sr. Engineer
Navid Aslani – COO | Previously GE, Technology Operations Leader
Kai Gradert – Head of UX/Design | Previously Google, Sr. User Experience Designer
Ryan Perry – Sr. Engineer | Previously StumbleUpon, Engineer
Arash Danesh – Community Manager