A free, Web-based video communications service this week announced that it’s adding new features to give users more ways to interact with each other and entertain themselves.
Officials with San Francisco-based TokBox say the new features will allow users to view YouTube videos, SlideShare presentations and TokBox’s (News - Alert) own “video mails” together as a group and discuss them in real time.
The features are integrated through an intuitive interface: TokBox users need only drag and drop or copy a link to the YouTube video, SlideShare presentation or TokBox video mails into their TokBox video conference call. The videos and presentations will begin playing automatically, and can be controlled by any of the call participants.
Here’s a screen capture to show the service – which TMCnet reviewed here – in progress (we take it the guy with the bigger smile is the Celtics fan):
Like Skype, Yahoo Messenger or AOL AIM, anyone with a Webcam and broadband Internet connection can speak face-to-face online on TokBox.
But unlike its competitors, TokBox offers one simple Internet link that a user can send to a friend to initiate a video chat.
The service was launched in October, backed by $4 million from Sequoia Capital (News - Alert), the venture capital firm that gave birth to YouTube.
Recently, TMCnet had a chance to catch up with the company’s chief executive officer, Nick Triantos, to talk about how TokBox is faring amid this financial crisis, the recent Skype-China privacy controversy, bandwidth-capping and the possibility of integrating video communications with mobile platforms.
Our exchange follows.
TMCnet: We’re reading a lot of disheartening news lately about IT and telecommunications bellwethers, such as Cisco and Intel (News - Alert), lowering revenue projections during this deepening financial crisis. What kind of activity has TokBox seen in its free video communications service since the economy began taking its downturn?
Nick Triantos (pictured left): TokBox has been seeing very significant growth this fall. As individuals and companies look for ways to save money, free services like TokBox are able to replace paid-for video conferencing tools and physical travel. We’ve seen substantially greater than 50 percent growth just over the past few weeks. We literally have millions of people per month entering into TokBox video conversations, and numerous other sites who are now trying to integrate our technology to further connect their users to each other.
TMCnet: Many IT insiders, including Cisco CEO John Chambers (News - Alert), say the Internet is migrating to a Web-based space – a move that experts involved in video compression say will seriously strain capacity. True to industry trends, TokBox’s new services are all video-based. What kind of concerns does TokBox have about the amount of data that videos use, and what kinds of limits does the free service have, if any? Can TokBox users get more video capacity for a fee?
NT: Today we are not hitting any of the limits being proposed by broadband providers. We have been careful to tune our application to run very well on basic broadband connections, so we don’t push as much data as peer-to-peer file sharing services and other significant consumers of Internet bandwidth. That being said, I do hope the telecommunications companies, cable companies and other service providers do not implement the bandwidth capping that they’ve been talking about. We are entering an era in the United States where we need to encourage exchange of information and novel applications to help grow our economy. While in the short-term it may be cheaper for the telecommunications companies if we cap bandwidth, I believe in the end it will do much more harm than good by throttling innovative Internet-based products.
TMCnet: Skype, arguably a leader in Internet video communications, grabbed some unwanted press recently when it was associated with a spying program that the Chinese government reportedly ran through its service in the communist nation. How extensively is TokBox’s service used outside of the United States, and what kinds of restrictions, if any, are put in place in certain nations?
NT: TokBox is seeing significant international growth, probably in part due to how useful video calls can be to people with distant family members. I think it’s very unfortunate that a single set of standards don’t exist around the world with respect to privacy, but companies who want to provide their services overseas have to find ways to comply with the governments around the world and still hopefully provide sufficient transparency to their uses. At TokBox, we are doing everything we can to ensure that private video calls and video messages remain private.
TMCnet: With the rise of the iPhone and now BlackBerry (News - Alert) Storm, and with all the talk surrounding the Google Android mobile platform – technologies that are expected to serve consumers as well as an increasingly mobile workforce – we’re reading more and more about the growing popularity of the mobile Web and mobile video. What kinds of integration with mobile devices, if any, does TokBox envision for its services?
NT: Mobile platforms are clearly becoming a more interesting platform. In the United States, however, it seems the mobile carriers – such as AT&T and Verizon – don’t have sufficient capacity to handle large amounts of data, even though their networks are getting faster. It’s unfortunate but not surprising that the iPhone doesn’t have a front-facing camera, which is needed to do two-way video calls. In Europe and East Asia, the mobile infrastructure is significantly more developed than in the United States. We absolutely see several ways in which TokBox can extend our services onto mobile platforms. I hope we’ll be able to speak more about that soon.
TMCnet: How unique are these new multi-user conference room and video-sharing capabilities among video communications providers?
NT: Each product tends to have its set of strengths and weaknesses. We find the multi-party video calls are a very useful feature – and yet they’re notably absent from tools like Skype and Google’s new video chat functionality. TokBox has tried to provide a broad suite of tools, from live calling to video mails, and one-to-one and multi-party calls. All are useful in different contexts. I’ve heard of numerous groups who’ve used TokBox for events like fantasy football drafts and drinking games, but I also find the one-to-one calls super-useful for the same reasons that most phone calls are one-to-one. We’re really excited about the YouTube and SlideShare sharing functionalities, though, since we built it in direct response to some of our users asking for ways to participate in more fun activities using live video.
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Michael Dinan is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To read more of Michael’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
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Michael Dinan
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