#rulas

Kazakhstan's New Social Network Groups Users By Tribe

ALMATY—When Kazakhs meet for the first time, two key questions are all it takes to figure each other out: What part of the country are they from? And what horde and tribe are they? 

The answers immediately establish a person's roots, history, and allegiances—a holdover of ancient tribal divisions that remain relevant in modern-day Kazakhstan.

Now, a new social-networking site is hoping to tap into Kazakhs' tribal identity by grouping users according to their hordes and tribes.

The site, Rulas.kz—based on the Kazakh word for “tribemate”—looks much like any other networking site, with photographs of stylish, mainly young, members decorating a brightly colored homepage.

But in addition to standard registration information like name, e-mail address, and password, Rulas asks applicants to categorize themselves according to “zhuz,” or horde, and any one of the dozens of “ru,” or tribes, belonging to each horde.