Vidyoo Launches Face-To-Face Speed Dating On Facebook

Vidyoo, a recently launched Facebook platform, offers online dating with a twist. The application, which promises to help you meet people with similar interests and preferences, uses video chat mixed with the idea of speed dating as its main form of interaction.

“It’s unique in the field of applications in that nature, in that most dating applications don’t have the ability to get into that face-to-face meeting,” said co-founder and CEO, Assaf Mendelson, in an interview with Pando Daily. “Vidyoo is an application for meeting and dating new people that enables you to immediately, or very fast, get a face-to-face meeting with people you find interesting.”

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Vidyoo is based on a smart algorithmic engine that connects users with shared interests, also taking into consideration users’ pre-defined preferences such as age, gender and location.

How does it work?

The app is accessible via Facebook, but in order to start chatting each user needs to create a new Vidyoo profile which includes basic personal information.

On each login, users are presented with three people who are currently online and share their interests. Once they pick someone they would like to talk to, a six-minute video chat is initiated between the two.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80OG-n1WLlE[/youtube]

At the beginning of the chat a ‘Privacy Curtain’ masks the other person on both ends – a function which allows users to control when and how much of another user’s video stream they see. Each user can decide when to increase the curtain’s transparency when they are ready to see them.

Vidyoo also provides users with a number of tools to help the conversation move along. The application shows each of the chat participants information about their “date,” such as their favorite film, to help break lulls in the chat.

Once six minutes are up, both sides can agree to add six additional minutes to the chat, end it and move on, or even “Hook Up” and send a friend request – in which case full identities are revealed.

The company’s website ensures that as more users will join, additional search filters will be available to narrow the results.

Vidyoo was co-founded and backed by Assaf Mendelson, Ehud Ramot and Gigi Levy. Its future business plan consists mainly of paid premium features and advertising.

Vidyoo was founded in October 2011 as part of the application development startup Fbhatchery, which aims to create a variety of experiences for Facebook.