Nerd Acumen

This is a follow-up to my earlier post, “Chatroulette by the numbers“. (Also, visit that link for more on what Chatroulette is.)

A controversial new video chat service, Chatroulette, has spread like wildfire around the Web, and already major media outlets are chiming in on what it means, good or bad.  Now, although I generally agree with its already well-established reputation for being “creepy“, full of mostly males in their 20s masturbating on camera and generally behaving indecently, as a student of the Web and on-line communication, I thought it might be worth looking at Chatroulette as an authentic survey and insta-polling service.  Instead, I learned what was actually happening on Chatroulette, and that helped paint a picture for what it’s really all about.

My first study of the service, wherein I informally surveyed users about their usage… well, anyone who would actually take the time to speak with me (as opposed to being skipped – or, as this videographer put it, “nexted”)… proved to me that the service is more than just for the lewd-minded.  My survey actually led me to conclude that the primary purpose of the site isn’t just for sycophants to misbehave, but rather, for twentysomething men to go about looking for members of the opposite sex to simply connect with.  It that regard, it’s not much different than traditional dating services and from a lot of the behavior that takes place in the social media space already.  In other words, it’s not just about sex, but interpersonal co-ed communication (err, I guess that’s sex, too… but I can’t presume most users are actually looking for sexual encounters, in that regard).

Of course, my first study took place late at night, so I felt it wise to take a look at usage during the day as well (I’ll have a Prime Time usage study up eventually… the service is often down due to its newfound popularity during early evening hours).  My prediction was that I’d find more females on Chatroulette during the day.  Whether that was because more women are supposedly at home and have free time during the day, or more women are taking an interest in the service due to its recent media coverage, I cannot say.  It was just a hunch, but it ended up being mostly accurate.  However, I must strictly note that this was NOT a scientific study, and based on differences in time-zones, and the fact that several of the women I talked to were in timezones that were already well into evening hours, I’m leaning on the service’s new popularity having to do with finding more women.  And more non-US users.

Below are my findings.

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Image from Dangerous Minds

Chatroulette, the fascinating new Web video chat service from 17-yr old Russian wunderkind Andrey Ternovskiy, is rapidly taking the Internets by storm.  Whether you think Chatroulette is an uncensored mess with unseen potential or it’s just the best thing going right now, it’s only a matter of time before everybody is talking about it.  With that in mind, I felt like conducting some informal surveys directly on Chatroulette to see what it’s all about.

I found that, despite a reputation for being a phallus-plagued 4chan-esque Internet backwater, most users are looking to Chatroulette for a fun, genuine chat experience with a member of the opposite sex.

Before I dive in to the numbers, in short, Chatroulette is a Web vidchat service akin to the non-video chat service Omegle.  Like Omegle, Chatroulette matches random webcam users with other random webcam users, no login, prior criteria, or preferences required.  Already, Chatroulette is producing craigslist “Missed Connections” and some pretty hilarious “Chatroulette Reaction” screencaps (NSFW!).  It appears that the general consensus around the blogosphere is that, like much of the Internet, lewd behavior and exhibitionism is the modus operandi of the site.  Following are some non-scientific figures I’ve produced to both challenge and support such conceptions.

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