by Emily Ryan, Managing Editor
A Wooster alumnus is at the forefront of the creation of a new video conferencing website that promises to change the nature of online social networking.
Jack Briggs ’08, who works as the site manager for Woo Media, Inc., pitched the idea for MonsterChat, which allows for up to 24 people to simultaneously participate in any one of numerous video chat rooms, to the company several months ago. While Briggs’s initial idea called for 30-person chat rooms, the site’s developers decided the number was not feasible and aimed instead for 24 (which still represented a daunting task).† After a short development period, MonsterChat was launched at the beginning of April, and now boasts over 100,000 users. The site is accessible through both Facebook and Twitter accounts.
While MonsterChat has received considerable traffic in the short period of time it has run, Woo Media has already begun to implement plans for its expansion. The company is currently working to advertise the site through a variety of forums, such as Facebook and Twitter, though Briggs notes that its marketing strategy has never centered on simply setting and meeting member quotas. “We didn’t have a bar set,” he said. “We’re just trying to go as viral as possible.” Woo Media marketers have largely pursued an individual-based approach to spreading the word about the site, and have specifically emphasized the many uses it can have for businesses and educators.
Briggs, who majored in communication studies at the College, cites his experience at Wooster as important in providing him with the marketing skills he now employs in his job with the company. After graduating, he was unsure of which career path to pursue and stumbled upon a notice for an internship with Woo Media. He landed the position and soon realized that he wanted to work for the company in an official capacity. The close working relationship of the Woo Media team was a particular draw; Briggs described his fellow employees as “passionate” about what they do. “I wouldn’t have gotten this job without my Wooster degree,” he said.
In addition to promoting MonsterChat, Woo Media hopes to soon develop more features for the site. According to Briggs, these additions include: mobile applications for the iPhone and Android phones, one-on-one video chatting capability, and more types of chat rooms. Briggs added that, given the newness of the site, there remain a few minor kinks that developers still need to work out.
In addition to MonsterChat, the company runs two other sites that have enjoyed considerable success. The first, WooMe, is an online speed dating forum while the second, ShufflePeople, pairs random users in video conferencing rooms (· la ChatRoulette). Briggs is confident, though, that MonsterChat will bring a significant change to the world of Internet social networking. “No one out there is doing what we’re doing,” he said.