Woo Media was an

online chat Online chat is any direct text-, audio- or video-based (webcams), one-on-one or one-to-many ( group) chat (formally also known as synchronous conferencing), using tools such as instant messengers, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), talkers and possi ...

and

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

which offered a variety of interactive sites that provided live social entertainment through a computer or mobile device. The company raised $17 million in venture capital from several investors including

Index Ventures Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with headquarters in both San Francisco and London. It invests primarily in tech companies. History Index Ventures has its origins in a Switzerland, Swiss bond (finance), bond-trading firm cal ...

Atomico Atomico is a European Venture Capital firm headquartered in London, with offices in Paris, Berlin and Stockholm. Its founder and CEO is Niklas Zennström, a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Skype and Kazaa. History and investments It has ...

(founded by

Niklas Zennström Niklas Zennström (; born 16 February 1966) is a Swedish entrepreneur and technology investor. He is co-founder of the charity organization Zennström Philanthropies. Education Zennström attended high school at Katedralskolan, Uppsala. He ha ...

and

Janus Friis Janus Friis (; born 26 June 1976) is a Danish entrepreneur best known for co-founding the file-sharing application Kazaa, and the peer-to-peer telephony application Skype. In September 2005, he and his business partner Niklas Zennström sold Sk ...

), Mangrove Capital Partners, and Klaus Hommels. One analyst valued Woo Media at $41 million at the time it was funded. Online dating company Zoosk purchased Woo Media in November 2011. Zoosk purchased Woo Media for its properties’ commercial traction and for access to its 10 million

active users Active users is a software performance metric that is commonly used to measure the level of engagement for a particular software product or object, by quantifying the number of active interactions from users or visitors within a relevant range ...

Overview

Woo Media was created by Stephen Stokols, an American entrepreneur, technologist and executive in 2007 after a conversation with his sister about the difficulties using an

online dating service Online dating, also known as internet dating, virtual dating, or mobile app dating, is a method used by people with a goal of searching for and interacting with potential romantic or sexual partners, via the internet. An online dating service ...

. Stokols had been working on new web based video technologies and used it to launch Woo Media’s first property, WooMe.com. Previously, Stokols served as the Vice President of new revenue opportunities at

BT Group BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-li ...

where he was responsible for evaluating applications of browser-based voice and video technologies. Upon launching the website at TechCrunch40 in 2007, the founding product, WooMe had an initial 1,000 users. The site’s user base grew to 1,000,000 users in the first twelve months. The site has since been featured in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', ''

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high tech, high-tech and Startup company, startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. I ...

'', '' Metro.co.uk'', ''

Times Online ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fo ...

'', ''

Mashable Mashable is a Online newspaper, news website, digital media platform and entertainment company founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005. History Mashable was founded by Pete Cashmore while living in Aberdeen, Scotland, in July 2004. Early iterations o ...

'', ''

Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

'', ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

'' and ''

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and continues . Overview ''PC Mag ...

''. Stokols grew the organization from 5 employees in 2007 to over 60 in 2011. The company broadened its focus over the past 5 years and, at the time of its sale, included additional websites of various

interactive video The term interactive video usually refers to a technique used to blend interaction and linear film or video. History In 1962, Steve Russell, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), created Spacewar!, the world's first inte ...

experiences including one on one

experience (WooMe.com), reality TV

online video Internet video (also known as online video) is digital video that is distributed over the internet. Internet video exists in several formats, the most notable being MPEG-4i AVC, AVCHD, FLV, and MP4. There are several online video hosting se ...

(WooMe.tv),

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network, forming a peer-to-peer network of Node ...

video chat (ShufflePeople.com), and

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives fro ...

group video chat (MonsterChat.com). The Woo Media network had over 10 million active users with an average of 20 thousand registrants per day at the time of the sale to Zoosk.

Products and Services

''WooMe''

WooMe was an

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a mostly discontinuedAlthough it is discontinued by Adobe Inc., for the Chinese market it is developed by Zhongcheng and for the international enterprise market it is developed by Ha ...

based

online dating Online dating, also known as internet dating, virtual dating, or mobile app dating, is a method used by people with a goal of searching for and interacting with potential romantic or sexual partners, via the internet. An online dating service ...

platform, which enabled

users Ancient Egyptian roles * User (ancient Egyptian official), an ancient Egyptian nomarch (governor) of the Eighth Dynasty * Useramen, an ancient Egyptian vizier also called "User" Other uses * User (computing), a person (or software) using an ...

to meet in live

interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...

video sessions via webcam. WooMe requires no questionnaires, profile descriptions or software download. WooMe is allows users to meet new people around any shared interest. The original product model included online

speed dating Speed dating is a formalized matchmaking process with the purpose of encouraging eligible singles to meet new potential partners in a very short period of time, so that interested pairs can continue meeting each other after the event. Organiz ...

sessions which lets users create or join topical live speed

video chat Videotelephony (also known as videoconferencing or video calling) is the use of audio and video for simultaneous two-way communication. Today, videotelephony is widespread. There are many terms to refer to videotelephony. ''Videophones'' are ...

sessions, connecting with 3 people in 3 minutes. Currently, WooMe is a one-on-one video chatting product where individuals can meet in an online atmosphere. WooMe offers a

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium", is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical ( ...

model that is free to register and browse profiles. Within this model, the product serves ads and offers a

subscription service The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a Product (business), product or Service (business), service. The model Publication by subscription, was pioneer ...

with premium features including reading messages, viewing interested profiles, sending gifts, the ability to tag WooMe profiles, to browse and search profiles by

filtering Filtration is a physical process that separates solid matter and fluid from a mixture. Filter, filtering, filters or filtration may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming * Fil ...

attributes including location and age, and to share profiles with friends on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

''WooMe.tv''

WooMe TV combined reality TV,

, and

social networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

. It was a social entertainment destination where users participated in live interactive video introductions, shared them with friends or the world, and watched interactive video introductions of others. Users could watch live online video posted by users who have authorized access to their WooMe profile, share favorite videos with friends through

social networks A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of meth ...

and interact with other user profiles by rating and commenting on user videos. WooMe.TV amassed over 20 million total video views and 500,000 pieces of unique content before it was sold to Zoosk.

''ShufflePeople''

ShufflePeople was a random

introductions site that, like ChatRoulette and Omegle, enabled people from around the world to meet. This website randomly paired users to interact through their

web-based A web application (or web app) is application software that is created with web technologies and runs via a web browser. Web applications emerged during the late 1990s and allowed for the server to dynamically build a response to the request, ...

cameras. Users have the ability to move on to another conversation at any point. They can also connect with

to meet other users through a Facebook application. ShufflePeople was free and required no registration.

''MonsterChat''

MonsterChat was a group video chat room site that enabled friends to video chat with up to 16 people simultaneously. Users could create or join existing video

chat rooms The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from ...

with up to 24 users to engage simultaneously around

trending topics Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, imag ...

and interests. They could also connect with friends through an integrated buddy list including

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

Hotmail Outlook.com, formerly Hotmail, is a free personal email service offered by Microsoft. It also provides a webmail interface accessible via web browser or mobile apps featuring mail, Calendaring software, calendaring, Address book, contacts, and ...

and

AOL AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. The service traces its history to an online ...

Controversy and criticism

In August 2008, Chace Crawford criticized Woo Media after his picture was used without permission one of the Woo Media properties. Woo Media removed the picture, issued an official apology to Crawford for the oversight, and introduced screening measures.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Woo Media Homepage
Chat websites American social networking websites Defunct social networking services