Chatroulette was the first site to popularize random video chat rooms. Before them, there was no popular site that had the same 1-on-1 random stranger connection format and also allowed users to engage via video. Omegle did exist before them, but offered a text chat only capability. This meant that when Chatroulette came out, it was basically the first of its kind and really blew up fast, getting headlines all over the place and major media attention. The concept seems simple enough, but the key was getting people to start engaging on the platform, because obviously without anyone on it the service wouldn’t be very interesting. The whole idea of it, randomly getting anyone from anywhere around the world, was just kind of a novel concept to a lot of people, and everyone wanted to try it at least once.
However, a problem quickly emerged, the issue of adult content, or in other words, nude users. For whatever reason, a lot of people like to go on random chat sites and take their clothes off, and this problem isn’t unique to Chatroulette, all similar sites have this issue. One way to address this is through moderators, another is through a login system with automated banning. Chatroulette has implemented a login system now, but at a cost, which is less visitors. The login system probably turns away users who want to remain completely anonymous, and so that is likely a big reason why they are no longer nearly as popular as they once were. Another reason is that Omegle quickly added their own video chat functionality after Chatroulette initially came out, and thus ended up stealing a lot of Chatroulette’s users over time. Either way, it’s still worth checking out the pioneer site that really brought random chatting into the limelight, so make sure you give them a visit! http://www.chatroulette.com