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.
If you want to talk to women, daytime is the best time.
Average age claimed: 26
This is significantly older than the late night study, however this mean was generated by a wider range of ages, from 18-40. The median age was about 27.
Like I discovered during late night, CR is not all male nudity during the day, but only slightly less so.
Like late at night, skipped connections (“nexted”) are the norm…
A key difference between late night and daytime was that I saw more nudity than I talked to people, during the day… although, I did get skipped less…
It’s possible during my late night survey, users displaying nudity simply nexted me before I could see that they were showing any nudity. Good for me, haha!
Chatroulette has grown in popularity with added media attention. The service was not listing the amount of people on-line, instead simply listing “>20,000″
Chatroulette is VERY international now
85% of the people I interviewed were from outside of the United States, primarily in Europe, particularly Norway.
What respondents liked about Chatroulette:
“Chatroulette is random, it’s like “zapping” (channel changing) on TV.”
“Great communication.”
“Girls!”
“Quick interactions.”
“Weed smokers.”
“Random Dutch people.” (spoken by a woman from Norway)
What respondents DID NOT like about Chatroulette:
“Lack of actual communication.”
“Male genitalia.”
“The sex stuff.”
“Rude people.”
“Old men.”
Based on some of these quotes, my general conclusion is that people love the random interaction on Chatroulette, but they hate the sexual content. HOWEVER, a significant percentage of users are on Chatroulette for the sexual content.
Ultimately, you just have to take the good with the bad. Also, there are seemingly more women on Chatroulette during the day, or, at least, now that it has grown in popularity, and many people are looking to have actual conversations with people, as opposed surfing it for sexual encounters. Of course, the majority of users are still men, probably no matter what time of day you visit the service.
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Tags: chatroulette, chatroulette research, chatroulette survey, video chat, web video, webchat