Can TokBox’s video chat be a YouTube-sized business?
Summary
TokBox, a browser-based video chat service allowing either live or recorded messages, is set to take the world by storm, according to todays New York Times.Housed by famed venture firm Sequoia Capital in an old YouTube office, the company also announced today that it had accepted a $4 million funding round from Sequoia, alongside investors including Amidzad and execs from Netscape and Paypal a slightly larger amount than YouTubes first funding. The company earlier raised a $100,000 angel round from a wider group, which also included the alumni of YouTube (co-founder Jawed Karim), Bebo.com, Slide and Cisco Systems. Rajeev Motwani, a Stanford professor and an early adviser to Google, is also an investor.The obvious implication is that TokBox will be heir to YouTubes good fortune (Sequoias Roelof Botha is leading the TokBox investment, just as he did on YouTube). The internets progress from text, to sound and finally to video mirrored similar institutions from previous years: Newspapers, radio and television.However, video communication is a new idea that has yet to catch on with the masses despite its hype among the digerati here in Silicon Valley. The obvious conclusion: Although TokBox is probably an excellent investment for Sequoia, it wont become a YouTube anytime soon.
