Chat Roulette, an ingenious idea, has had a fair amount of negative press because a high percentage of  its early adopters are typically described as ‘perverts’. For those of you interested in learning about it without having to try it, check out this short  review  by New York film-maker Casey Neistat.

Andrey Ternovskiy, the 17 year old high school student from Moscow, who created Chat Roulette could have a massive hit on his hands given the  novelty of the concept and the impressive numbers it has reached in such a short amount of time.

At this stage, it covers some of its costs through Google Adsense but to scale up and attract big brands,  it would need to address its edginess. It is simply too risque except for the bravest of brands or those too cheap to invest in a more serious engagement strategy, although, the approach depicted below works quite nicely for Harley Davidson.

Perhaps a licensing model will emerge whereby brands can offer access to a white labeled version of the software to its members. This method could work particularly well for online dating agencies although monitoring behaviour could prove to be a challenge.  It could also be an innovative tool for market researchers, sociologists and anthropologists wishing to connect with vast random samples of humanity assuming  it maintains its  current popularity trajectory.

Fascinating  to see where technology leads us when put in the hands of a  precocious  teenager and also how Chat Roulette might be applied in the future.