Tom H. C. Anderson - Next Gen Market Research

Will we be “Veeting” instead of “Tweeting” soon?

Last week after becoming the first market researcher to hit the 50,000 follower mark on Twitter, I’ve decided to take a bit of a break. Will still tweet, but it’s time to see what else is new in social media.

One of the trends I see coming is greater convergence of video on the web and in social media. Not just watching movies and TV online with Netflix and Hulu, but also more interactive use of video.

Webcams have been around for a while, and there is a bit greater use of them now thanks to Skype and new affordable/free business conferencing services. However, webcams still haven’t caught on as originally expected. Why? I think there’s still a hesitancy to let acquaintances and even close friends and family see and hear us anytime in the privacy of our own homes where we let our guard down and are not at our best.

Enter http://www.chatroulette.com which has been a micro trend the past few weeks and now has over 30,000 visitors at any one time. I posted the YouTube video above so you can get an idea of how it works, but there is no substitute for trying it out.

Warning, it is somewhat addictive and NOT for the faint of heart. Expect to see some disturbing people, but then again, you don’t have to worry about whether your hair is combed because you don’t know the “stranger” on the other side and will never see them again. Make sure your webcam is on, pour yourself a glass of wine or a cold brew and hit the “Start New Game Button”.

ChatRoulette looks like a fairly simple program (Flash based) and appeared about 3 months ago. It was started by a Russian 17 year old programmer. The point is, the instant popularity. In the past few days its been on the news and even on Jon Stewart’s, Daily Show!

Why may this be important? Applications like ChatRoulette may make us more comfortable with webcams, and soon they may be integrated with other social networking tools. If Facebook doesn’t think about adopting quickly, it could prove to be the Killer App for someone else.

Too early to know for sure, but I think chances are we may soon be “Veeting” instead of “Tweeting”.

@TomHCAnderson

[PS. As with all other social media trends there are obvious marketing, market research, and privacy issues... Also, as social media and market research converge will Next Gen Market Researchers need to be attractive in order to collect good data?]

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