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Camlink on NextNYers
Serge Kalinskiy appeared on this week’s NextNYers. nextNYers is a weekly web series hosted by Courtney Nichols, which interviews the top executives of the hottest up-and-coming technology, new media and Web 2.0 companies in New York. We would like to thank everyone involved with the production of this hot new series. Serge discussed how his experience with online dating sites yielded to the launch of Camlink. Just to clarify something which was edited in this video - Camlink plans to have about 500k-750k video impressions before we implement video advertising. We project that we will need 60,000 active users for us to do this - this is not our target # of users for the year as the “What we learned about Camlink.com section” hinted. We hope to reach this milestone in Q3 of this year. Please see this video on Viddler or Revver in Quicktime format.
Ilya Says: February 20th, 2008 at 2:10 am
This interview raised the question regarding the play of market research for web startups. Hank Williams posted two blogs, which I have to mostly agree with:
http://whydoeseverythingsuck.com/2008/02/who-needs-market-research.html
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/2/williams__market_research_is_for_suckers_
Market Research gives you details on the market size, growth, churn etc, but not whether a particular new service will succeed. That market study may be conducted, but that’s financially not within reach of any startup’s budget. It not really worth it anyways - as it’s the execution, marketing and adaptability that really deliver the result. We have used the following reports in creating the business model, some features and financial projections to guide us:
VIZU Online Dating Perceptions (May 2007)
PEW Internet: Online Dating (March 2006)
Market numbers from JupiterResearch
These specific studies talked about the current online dating market - not Online Speed Dating.
I personally believe that most concepts that occur in the real world can be duplicated online; it’s just a matter of time for technology and costs to catch-up. Examples: shopping, social relationships, entertainment etc. Poker, speed dating fall into this bucket.
Just like online dating may not be for everyone, neither will online speed dating - but I’m confident that will create a market for itself as the user benefits are obvious. And over the next 2-3 years as webcams become as standard as speakers and nic cards, video will need to be integrated into online dating - and Online Speed Dating is that venue!