TokBox: OpenTok growth spurs mobile chat initiative

TokBox was born as a consumer-focused video chat site last November and quickly collected some two million users. Earlier this month, it killed the play, focusing instead on a business product it rolled out four months ago, dubbed OpenTok, which also had quick uptake. In fact, the company said since launching the OpenTok API four months ago, the number of websites and web applications integrating video chat using the API has more than doubled, and now almost 80 websites and web applications are live.

TokBox said the success has spawned two new product launches--mobile features for the OpenTok API and the first OpenTok Widget, an HTML embed. Both underscore the overall TokBox vision of powering video chat across the web and across devices, and come in response to demand from both existing and potential partners.

On the mobile front, developers can now build video chat into AIR apps for Android and iOS devices enabling mobile users to participate in a video chat. Developers also can create web apps that are viewable on Android devices.

"Facilitating the use of OpenTok to mobile devices has always been at the top of our 'next steps' list," said TokBox CEO Ian Small. "From the moment we introduced the OpenTok API, developers and businesses asked about mobile capability, since they all know -- as do we -- that mobile devices are quickly surpassing computers as the tool most used for social interaction. We anticipate much more widespread adoption of the OpenTok API after completing this first step of our mobile capabilities."

The second launch, a basic embed, makes it easy for anyone to drop live, group video chat into their website, blog or social network. By following a three-step wizard, anyone with a web presence can generate a customized embed for their site-no technical knowledge or coding is required. Users simply copy and paste the line of HTML code into their site and video chat is ready for use.

The OpenTok API supports up to 20 participants in live video chat at once, offers one-click sharing to Facebook and Twitter, and gives participants the ability to move their own video streams around a site and use picture-in-picture capability. The HTML embed also provides moderation controls, which allows the chat moderator to determine the start and end times of the chat, as well as the ability to ban participants from the video chat.

"We soft-launched the basic chat embed on April 5 and after only 9 days almost 600 sites have integrated it into their websites," said Small. "We've always known there was a demand, but the numbers are very encouraging, so we will continue to build out our OpenTok Widgets offering and we are currently developing more plug-and-play widget options for our users."

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