2/21/10

Will Chatroulette Be Profitable?

The site Chatroulette.com was founded by a 17-year-old high school student in Moscow. His vision is to establish a U.S.-based company to run the site. His ambition was so familiar to what I anticipated in a 17-year-old boy. I don't want to sound like I am the professional or whatsoever, but let's be realistic, will Chatroulette make a profit?
I have three reasons that it hardly will.
1. It only drives people to Chatroulette because of the novelty and curiosity of meeting a total stranger.
It will take many ideas to keep these folks on the site. I've tried Chatroulette for a few times, and I really enjoyed seeing people's responses when I put my kitten in front of my camera. But that's it. Any sensible people will find Chatroulette as a way to kill time rather than making friends or exchanging information. The fever will be gone soon, and people will find other ways to entertain themselves. It is a good media phenomenon, but it will not last long.
2. As a social networking site (what I assume it to be), Chatroulette has limits and boundaries.
Providing merely nothing but video camera chat functions, I don't know how far Chatroulette can go. While big figures in the IT industry are thriving to collaborate everything (e.g. Google Wave), Chatroulette offers limited communication channels and thus leaves the users with more needs to meet.
My other wild guess is, even if Chatroulette links everything together, people will feel reluctant to use. God knows who you are REALLY talking to. S/he could be totally a bad person or a warm-hearted philanthropist. I doubt if our netizens will want to continue the conversation after a random encounter on Chatroulette. This also reflects my third point that:
3. Chatroulette is a dangerous place to go.
Communicating with strangers is potentially dangerous. If you ever checked out websites like National Sex Offenders Registry, you have some idea about how dangerous the real world is out there. Are you going to be comfortable letting your kids/siblings communicate with total strangers on Chatroulette? There may be people shouting out "Show me your boobz" or revealing their private parts via the camera. No matter how romantic movies tell us about meeting a stranger and starting a new life, there are traps and baits that people may fall into anytime.
Soon, people with evil thoughts will take advantage of the site and make their own profits, pornography for example.
Based on all above reasons, I doubt if Chatroulette can last long and make any profit for its creator. It is after all a "place for fun". Let me hear your thoughts.

13 comments:

Charlie Kwan said...

I have tried chatroulette several times and had fun which lasted around 20 mins, that is it. I cannot agree more that this social networking tool will never become serious. The chatting between people will not more than a page, while most of them starts with hi and ends with hi. Plus people from all over the world use this software, it could hardly be defined as social networking if the distant is really long, like America to Africa.

Jing Zhao said...

@Charlie: Thanks for your comment. I guess what you tried to point out here is the physical distance between people using Chatroulette. That is another reason why Chatroulette can hardly make a profit. Imagine a company wants to market its products on Chatroulette, it'll be hard for them to define their potential consumers on Chatroulette---they are from different corners of the world.

paromita said...

Jing, frankly I do not see organizations exploring Chatroulette for marketing itself neither would I recommend it. The networking aspect is really low in this tool as people randomly appear and disappear here!
BTW find a mention of your post in my comment on Chatroulette and Cleverbot, hope you do not have a problem :) Will look forward to your views- http://bit.ly/bBS7Js

Unknown said...

Jing, you raise some great points about the aspects of Chat Roulette. The creator was really just making an app for him and his friends, and it turned into a global obsession! I agree that the site will likely never turn into a useful social media tool for orgs or become profitable.

Jing Zhao said...

@ Paromita & Rachel: Good to hear your thoughts, ladies!!

Anonymous said...

Perhaps someone else will pick up the chatroulette idea like Facebook or Google and improve it. I agree, as it is now- it isn't the greatest.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps someone else will pick up the chatroulette idea like Facebook or Google and improve it. I agree, as it is now- it isn't the greatest.

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