vChatter Launches A PG-Rated Version Of Chatroulette

Leena Rao

Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010


vChatter, a popular video chat application on Facebook, is taking on Chatroulette today, launching a “family-friendly” video chat standalone site. vChatter, which attracts 2.5 million active monthly users on Facebook, has been able to filter out the Chatroulette penis problem, because account activity is tied to the user’s Facebook identity . And the vChatter consistently checks screenshots of chats taking place to make sure users aren’t exposing themselves or conducting inappropriate behavior.

The new destination site brings social video chat outside the walls of Facebook. The service, which requires you to sign in with your Facebook credentials, allows users to pick who they want to meet based on geography, gender, and age. By factoring demographic data into the equation, vChatter claims to actually be able to create valuable matches of users for video-chat. And Similar to Chatroulette, you can click “next” to move on to another video chat.

Along with the destination site, vChatter has rolled out personal URLs for private video chatrooms. Users can then embed their vChatter badge on a blog, email, or website and invite readers and recipients to reach out in a live video chat.

While Chatroullette re-launched to try to clean up its act, the problem of inappropriate behavior on the site still seems to persist. vChatter is hoping to use its model on Facebook to create a safer web platform for families and children. And the site has seen significant traction on Facebook— approximately 15 million calls have been established and average time on site is 4.5 minutes.

Co-founded by internet dating entrepreneur Will Bunker, vChatter has attracted a large international userbase, says Fast Company, including Filipino and Indonesian families and migrant laborers. The startup also recently raised $250,000 in new funding.

Company: vChatter
Website: vchatter.com
Launch Date: May 30, 2010
Funding: $600k

vChatter is the largest video chat application on Facebook. Founded in May 2010 by Will Bunker, Hitesh Parashar and Dan Owen, vChatter provides a “clean” version of Chatroulette and also allows Facebook users to video chat with their Facebook friends. One aspect of the service is the fun, comfortable environment to discover and chat with like-minded people on Facebook. Another important piece of it is to be able to connect with the Facebook friends using live video chat. One way to...

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