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For a Web start-up business scarcely six months old, TokBox has the rare combination of both high hopes of competing with popular rival companies such as Skype, and the financial backing to make it happen. The company allows people to conduct free video chats using only a Web browser, unlike Skype and other stand-alone applications that require users to download and install specific software. Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital announced today that it has invested part of $4 million in the company, and seeing how the same backer has funded such Web successes as YouTube, TokBox may be in a good position to compete with its traditional application-based video chat competitors. The company's success may depend on whether people will find the service's ease of use more convenient than the existing competition. The rest of the $4 million in funding comes from a number of notable investors, according to a press release issued today by TokBox. Doubles as a Social Networking Module Just as YouTube helped people watch streaming video by making their videos play easily from within the Web browser, without the  need for any uncommon third-party extension software, TokBox hopes to do the same for live video communications, requiring only a Webcam and a broadband Internet connection to work within all of the major Web browsers. The company also allows users to add a TokBox component to their favorite social networking Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Making their technology available in the social networking space has the potential to spread TokBox's service quickly through a Web space filled with users who appear always ready to embrace new and easy forms of communications. While existing services from Skype, Yahoo Messenger and AOL's AIM all allow users of their software to perform video chats, for those without either the time or desire to install the required programs, the prospect of TokBox's browser-only video chat technology may prove appealing. A SearchEngineWorld screen shot below shows an example of the TokBox video chat screen, with images of two people side by side in a browser window. Available Even if You Are Away The other big feature TokBox is touting with their service is the ability to send video messages of up to five minutes in length to those who aren't online for a live video chat at the same time as the person doing the sending. Instead of having to wait for or schedule a time when both parties are online, TokBox will have the video messages waiting for the recipient in the form of an e-mail link. Each person who signs up at the company's Web site receives a custom Web link which they can share with friends they wish to communicate with using video. Startup TokBox Offers Video Chat Using Only Browser The company's Chief Executive is Serge Faguet, a native of Russia who co-founded TokBox six months ago after a short stint studying at the Stanford business school. Faguet has spoken about the promises of video conferencing that haven't yet been realized, even though the technology now exists, and is quoted in The New York Times as saying, “Video communication has never really taken off, despite the fact that people talk about it as a part of the future. We want to make it very easy.” YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim is a board member of TokBox and joins Sequoia Financial as a financial supporter of the start- up. Sequoia Financial made several billion dollars when it sold YouTube to Internet search industry giant Google, and now the company is doing what it can to see that TokBox can follow in YouTube's rarified footsteps. The main Sequoia partner who invested in YouTube is Roelof Botha, and he is also helping grow TokBox. "Part of the beauty of YouTube is that we all have browsers and we are all on the Internet, so you can click on a link and video will start to play. TokBox offers the same easy solution inside the browser," he noted in an article in The New York Times. TokBox's other co-founder and the company's chief technology officer is Ron Hose, who met Faguet while attending Cornell University. The biggest technological hurdle the company may have to overcome, should the service gain the kind of following that YouTube has, is the cost required to support the storage and broadcasting of huge amounts of video content. The company is actively planning to be ready should the service take off the way YouTube did. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words In order to make the video chat offered by TokBox a truly real time communications service, Hose has said "it has to be perfect on both ends." To that end the company has sought out those with experience in the field, and a number of talented people have joined the teams working at and backing TokBox, including: - Tony Bates, a senior vice president at Cisco
- Rajeev Motwani, a former advisor to Google and a Stanford professor
- Founders of Netscape and Bebo
- Executives at PayPal and Slide
Bates is an investor in the company and is aiding with development of the technological framework needed to support the possibility of large scale growth in the number of people using TokBox. Motwani is also an investor and an advisor. The service will use the upcoming Adobe Flash Player 9 technology to further improve the quality of it's video chat broadcasting. May Make Money Using Paid Advertisements To generate money from the site, Faguet and Hose are looking at both advertising and a premium version of TokBox for companies to use as a communications tool to reach their customers. The company also offers an application programming interface (API) which allows programmers to integrate TokBox into Web sites, including the automatic registration and authentication of users. With today's announcement TokBox appears to be in a good position to make a splash in the online video messaging world. Related Links:
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10:49 am on Oct. 15, 2007 (utc 0)
