"This will catch on like wildfire," and "a real revolution in online marketing" are just two of the comments made by VideoChats' backers, siblings Jacob and Ruth Zoarets, who unveiled their new application to "Globes" on Thursday.
VideoChats is a flash application that enables users to manage a video chat with other users at high quality and without being disconnected. The application is based on P2P (point-to-point) technology, which enables sharing and transmission of files at high speeds, because each computer functions as a small server that facilitates an effective distribution of the bandwidth load.
VideoChats is not an innovative application; many VoIP companies, such as Skype and Israel's Jajah and ooVoo, already offer similar products. However, their services require downloading software and registering for the service, and the video quality is not always high.
"Globes" spoke with Jacob and Ruth Zoarets over VideoChats, which is offered for free to Facebook users, and the video quality was indeed high. "The quality is much higher than on Skype," said Jacob. Ruth added, "Skype or Messenger force people to exit Facebook, but people want to have this capability on Facebook."
VideoChats enables video chats with Facebook friends who are online and with other users who are not Facebook friends, but have downloaded the application. A Facebook video chat is easy to use. The person selects the addressee and the application displays a telephone that tells the addressee that someone wants to chat with him or her. After identification, the callers can chat directly on the screen, with text messaging as the default option. Users can choose to upgrade the video chat's audio and video quality using a microphone or network camera. The application also enables video conferencing.
Jacob and Ruth Zoarets previously developed Twitter Analyzer.
"Globes": How do you plan to make money from VideoChat?
Jacob Zoarets: "The application on Facebook is free, but it will include advertisements along the bottom of the chat window. We'll offer websites a $50 monthly license fee with no commitments, or to buy the technology for a one-time payment of $6,000."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 8, 2010
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