Is Chatroulette going to be an American or Russian company?

In late 2009, only 500 people were using this website launched by a teenager. Today, Chatroulette gets more than a million visitors daily. With Russian oligarchs offering him cash, what will the young man do?

Ever since Digital Journal had a first albeit way too short report on the new social networking rage known as Chatroulette, this web-service started by its young Russian inventor, Andrey Ternovskiy, is becoming more and more successful. Only last week it was featured on Jon Stewart's Daily Show. Stewart concentrated on the more unsavory aspects of the cyberspace encounters users often have, but this new exposure will surely attract even more visitors to the site. What is Chatroulette? It's only for people with a web-cam running on their machines, and when they log in they are randomly connected to someone out there, somewhere on planet earth who also is online. And while you see your new acquaintance, you chat and perhaps can get to know each other. Checking the site, it is not unusual to find that 20,000 users are online simultaneously.

Spiegel Online

Chatroulette! screendump

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The original idea by 17-year-old Andrey T. - both brilliant and innocent - has meanwhile shown its drawbacks. It did not take long, and the first exhibitionists invaded, with men sometimes even masturbating in front of their web-cam, apparently finding the idea exciting that some shocked member of the public gets to see their activities. Of course, the website tells visitors that it does not tolerate obscene, offending, pornographic material to be broadcast, but since when has such a message deterred anyone? Meanwhile, an article in the English part of Der Spiegel shows that the young man is being wooed, because of the site's potential success, by Russian millionaires as well as US investors. Google is being named in the article, but without further corroboration. Andrey Ternovskiy, who is still running the service from a server tucked away under his mother's kitchen table, hasn't made up his mind yet completely, but it seems that he has applied for US citizenship - it is one of his dreams to have a company in Silicon Valley.