It seems that despite video calling failing to take off anywhere (or any evidence that users actually want them) operators haven’t given up on the pesky things yet. However, they are getting a little cleverer in how they promote them.
You’d have thought that UK’s 3 of all companies would have had its fill of promoting video calls. It’s whole launch strategy was based on this service, despite the illogicality of promoting your Achilles Heel. In other words, you can only make a call if you know someone who also owns a handset. And the one thing you can guarantee with a new handset launch is that most people won’t know anyone else with one!
KPN cleverly got round this problem by giving away a desk top application that allows you to video call anyone else with a PC and a webcam. Smart thinking, chaps. But does anyone use webcams either – except in the adult context?
3′s new initiative, according to Net Imperative is to run a promotion based around video dating. Users are invited the record their own video ad and send it to 07915 123123 (in case you’re tempted). These will be posted on www.endoftheblinddate.com for others to gawp at, chuckle, feel generally superior and vote on. Echoes of HotOrNot – still going strong after all these years.
Now that 3 have reached some kind of critical mass in video compatible handsets, it’s not so much a question of finding someone to call, as finding a reason to call them. They obviously think that video dating is one of the applications that will convince us (well single us’s) to start to use this service.
3′s marketing director, Graeme Oxby said: “With technology now available, people can use their mobiles to see and hear their potential partner before meeting them. It’s the beginning of the end of the blind date as we know it.”
What I think they’re missing here is a basic usability issue – that video calling makes most people look errr….fat and ugly, not to mention slightly retarded. So unless you have real film star looks, you’re going to avoid it like the plague, especially for dating.
Another usability issue is if you hold it where it feels comfortable (about waist level) it makes you have a very pronounced double chin. This means you have to hold the camera above your head to get a vaguely flattering angle. Which makes you look damn silly if you’re using it in public.
So, yes we need reasons why we need to use this feature. But I’m not convinced dating is one of them.
Personally, I’d stop flogging a dead horse with video calling. People will discover their own uses for the service, now it’s available and if they value it.
But there are two angles I think could be important. Firstly, what’s happening around users, rather than stressing the talking head approach, especially when the talking head doesn’t look very good.
The key to this is how you can enhance the communication experience. Which brings me to the second angle, which is sex, of course. It always is 
Ein schones Wochenende, as we say here in Germany.
Russell
PS Another possible huge angle for video calling is covered by Lockergnome – Doctor visits. In the UK alone, there’s 98 million visits to a General Practitioner every year, which are un-necessary.
If only some of those could be screened by video calling, the cost savings could be huge. And the profits for the operator huge.
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