May 13, 2010 at 19:01Is Chatroulette So Great?
Over the course of 3 months, notes on the unique video chat service created by a 17-year-old guy from Moscow have been published on Habré. Much was discussed: could the student create such a service, is it a PR move?
I also decided to see what kind of site it was. Frankly speaking, it is addictive: the first time I spent a couple of hours with friends. But during the first visit, the first doubts already crept into the soul. Everywhere they wrote about millions of users, as well as the fact that about 20 thousand people are constantly online. We often came across some interlocutors repeatedly. Once managed to catch themselves as opponents!
These are all facts that prompted me to conduct mini-studies. An hour ago, I connected a webcam and plunged into the world of Chatroulette. I’ll say right away that the study was conducted at 18:00 Moscow time, in New York at 10 a.m. at the time (they say that most users are from the USA). Of course, this could tell on the results, but so much so ...
100 contacts were made, of which 21 interlocutors I saw at least twice. Even without counting the likelihood of a second meeting, the conclusion is obvious: with 20 thousand users online, this is extremely unlikely. The version that the majority at the time of my search was already chatting with each other disappears, because information was published that the site’s average contact lasts 9 seconds. I don’t know if users are divided into groups, whether I show a certain set of interlocutors to one user.
I want to say that Chatroulette is just another soap bubble inflated by the press due to the precedent with the young age of the creator.
I also decided to see what kind of site it was. Frankly speaking, it is addictive: the first time I spent a couple of hours with friends. But during the first visit, the first doubts already crept into the soul. Everywhere they wrote about millions of users, as well as the fact that about 20 thousand people are constantly online. We often came across some interlocutors repeatedly. Once managed to catch themselves as opponents!
These are all facts that prompted me to conduct mini-studies. An hour ago, I connected a webcam and plunged into the world of Chatroulette. I’ll say right away that the study was conducted at 18:00 Moscow time, in New York at 10 a.m. at the time (they say that most users are from the USA). Of course, this could tell on the results, but so much so ...
100 contacts were made, of which 21 interlocutors I saw at least twice. Even without counting the likelihood of a second meeting, the conclusion is obvious: with 20 thousand users online, this is extremely unlikely. The version that the majority at the time of my search was already chatting with each other disappears, because information was published that the site’s average contact lasts 9 seconds. I don’t know if users are divided into groups, whether I show a certain set of interlocutors to one user.
I want to say that Chatroulette is just another soap bubble inflated by the press due to the precedent with the young age of the creator.
