What happened to Chatroulette? Four interesting uses with The Last Exorcism and Ben Folds

Yesterday we wrote about Sean Parker’s latest venture, Airtime, a new kind of social network / chatting platform that will allow people to meet through random videos. Sound familiar? Well yes, that’s because Sean and his business partner Shawn have admitted they’ve taken inspiration from Chatroulette, although Airtime will still be pretty different.

Everyone knows what Chatroulette is, but it seems that it’s become old news and very few people are using it anymore (or at least very few people admit to using it). For those that haven’t had the pleasure of trying it out, Chatroulette is basically a website which requires no log-ins or registration, you just sit in front of your webcam and you’re paired with a succession of complete strangers in one-on-one video chat.

It sounds like an interesting take on the random chat room interaction, but unfortunately Chatroulette is notorious for oddballs and nakedness and it seems it’s been considered a pervert’s / voyeur’s online haven for a while now that everyone’s got a bit bored of it.

But what else has been happening in the strange little lair that is Chatroulette?

1. The Last Exorcism viral marketing use of Chatroulette

This has got to be one of our favourite uses of Chatroulette EVER. To promote The Last Exorcism the team behind the film decided to turn to Chatroulette. We won’t ruin it for you, just watch the video below.

2. HealCam connects people for medical chats over Chatroulette

Last year, we wrote about HealCam, a way of connecting people with similar conditions and allowing them to talk to one another. Chatroulette is admittedly a strange platform for that kind of thing, but a nice idea.

3. Ben Folds concert talks to strangers on Chatroulette

Any random weirdos skulking around Chatroulette on the night of this Ben Folds concert would have been in for a strange and surreal treat, as Ben Folds talks directly to a lot of users in this brilliant video.

4. A Chat Roulette party – yay!

This is more like it. Chatroulette always seems to make more sense if a big group of friends log-on as apposed to someone sat all lonely on their own.

So is Chatroulette over, just a place for a few novelty stunts or do you still log-on and flash at randomers regularly?