The closest thing to actually sitting next to a friend while viewing content online, today announced it is launching into private beta May 18.
Watchitoo is the next step in the evolution of content sharing and social networking, offering real time social collaboration while viewing synchronized content from individual PCs.
Watchitoo's patent-pending technology makes it the first and only website allowing unlimited users to consume social media and communicate in a synchronized web-environment. "I was inspired to create Watchitoo after watching my son consume media online and saw an opportunity to connect with him there," said Rony Zarom, Founder and CEO of Watchitoo.
"I found that there wasn't an efficient way for people to communicate in real time while sharing or viewing content, only to perform singular tasks independently. Watchitoo really enables friends, families, even new contacts to converse while they view videos, listen to music, look at photos and much more."
Today's existing content sharing platforms, from YouTube to HuffingtonPost, enable users to view content and to comment on content but not in a real-time environment, whereas social networks and instant messenger do enable real-time conversations but not while viewing synchronized content.
Watchitoo seeks to bring all those platforms together content sites, social networks and instant messaging and create a portal that allows users to draw from content sharing sites, as well as load their own content, view it simultaneously, build a social network around the content and engage in real time conversation with other users. The real-time interaction is in the form of instant messenger and video chat, which adds an additional level of personalization and intimacy to the experience.
"Watchitoo is a natural next step in the evolution of social media platforms," said Zarom. "It takes the most popular uses of the internet and combines them, allowing for a real time collaboration between parties, marrying the experience of being together and being online."
The Watchitoo platform is ideal for a number of situations, including friends engaging over music, families engaging over family photos or even educators engaging over documents. It provides the real-time collaboration that is the next best thing to sharing in person. Additionally, users have complete control over their profiles, which can be created for free on the site. Once logged in, users create an avatar, search for and add friends, leave status messages, instant message one another and video chat by dropping a friends avatar image into a video chat window and of course, search for pre-existing content or upload their own to create a "show."
A show on Watchitoo can be defined as either a public show available for anyone to view or a private show only available via private invitation. Users can create up to four shows and within each individual show, load up to 100 images or videos. After a user has created a show they can choose to share it with the general public or invite friends.
These friends do not have to be Watchitoo users, nor do they have to register to watch a show. They simply click on a link and go directly to the shared content without registering (to go deeper into the site, however, they will need to register). Once a show has a group of users, the leader of the group may start a show and they can all watch it together and share comments, live.
Watchitoo's patent-pending technology overcomes the time and space limitation that currently exists on the Internet by hosting all content on an independent server. This means that any user, regardless of their connection or available resources, can participate in content viewing and interaction without the interruption of skipping or buffering.
Beginning today, Watchitoo's website will enter into private beta and select users will be able to begin setting up their own shows. Watchitoo plans to launch the public site in June 2009. About Watchitoo - Founded in January 2007 by entrepreneur Rony Zarom, Watchitoo redefines the boundaries of content sharing and social networking by enabling users to interact via instant messenger and video chat while viewing a broad array of content, including videos, music, pictures, documents and more.
Watchitoo's patent-pending technology creates the first and only real time social interaction while viewing content by overcoming the time and space limitation that exists on the Internet. Users can converse live through video chatting and instant messaging while viewing either public shows that anyone can view or private shows that can be viewed by invitation only.