Adobe Success Story

WOOing users
WooMe offers an engaging, high-performance experience to users looking to meet new people in a fun and fast way with Adobe Flash Media Interactive Server software

First impressions can make or break a potential relationship. With WooMe, an introductions platform that allows users to meet live, in timed voice and video sessions via webcam, the power of the first impression goes beyond words on a screen and a static photo that may be woefully out of date. Inspired by social networking, WooMe transforms meeting people online into a live, interactive experience that makes sifting through static dating profiles a thing of the past. The technology powering this innovative new service is Adobe Flash Media Interactive Server software.

Benefits

• Enables WooMe members to build social networks and meet people in real-time voice and video chat
• Lets users engage immediately on WooMe, without downloading any special software add-ons
• Provides an intuitive and engaging WooMe.com experience
• Developed a solution with Flash Media Interactive Server that is easy to deploy and scales to accommodate hundreds of thousands of users
• Gives users exceptional audio and video quality
• Facilitates worldwide distribution of video with unlimited connection license model

Project Details

We conducted a survey in May 2008 that showed that 77% of WooMe users were able to decide whether or not they wanted to get to know someone better in only 30 seconds,” says WooMe CEO and co-founder Stephen Stokols. “By providing an engaging, face-to-face experience delivered using Adobe Flash Media Interactive Server, we can enable people to make fast, fun, live introductions where they can decide if they are ‘wooed’ in one minute or less and move on if they are not.”

WooMe members simply need a microphone, webcam, and speakers built into their computers to play. After completing a 30-second registration process, users can participate in sessions. They can click the Sessions tab to see what sessions are pending hosted by other members, or start their own session. Then all they have to do is turn on the charm—Adobe Flash Media Interactive software does the rest. The software’s powerful streaming media capabilities deliver live video and audio sessions among WooMe members in real-time. Because Adobe Flash Player software is so ubiquitous, WooMe members do not have to download any additional specialized software.

Meeting people, online
Founded in 2006, and backed by Index Ventures, Atomico Investments (founded by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis), Mangrove Capital Partners, and Klaus Hommels, Europe’s Investor of the Year for 2006, WooMe is catapulting the more then $1 billion speed dating market into the online world.

According to WooMe Co-founder and Product Director George Berkowski, “Social networking is a great concept, but in practice it’s not really geared toward meeting new people. It’s more of a ‘friends management’ tool. Online dating services can be tedious and involve lengthy, static profiles and messaging; they’re not real-time. WooMe’s goal is to instantly introduce people over the Internet via voice and video so that real connections can be made.”

The WooMe team is clearly on to something. WooMe users are making connections and making new friends, some of which are even turning into romantic relationships. WooMe co-founder Stephen Stokol’s sister met her current boyfriend two months after the site launched. One WooMe user expanded his social network to more than 1,000 people since joining and is now planning a road trip across the United States to meet everyone in person. An Orange County-based WooMe user found love across the country and now travels two times per month to the East Coast to extend the relationship.

Investors and the media are equally enthusiastic. Since its public launch in November 2007, the company raised an additional $12.5 million Series B round in June 2008 based on its user growth. As of mid 2008 the company had facilitated over 500,000 introductions in 20 countries. WooMe has received coverage from major media including BBC News, BusinessWeek, CBS, Financial Times, The New York Times, and Wired.

Garnering and keeping users
All of WooMe’s best-laid plans, however, would be for naught without a user-centric service that is intuitive, highly accessible, and reliable. To help ensure a positive, engaging user experience on WooMe.com, designers have created a compelling site that is easy to navigate. They start by mocking up concepts and visuals for the site using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop software. “All of our front-end designers use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop extensively,” says Berkowski. From there, the site is hand-coded in HTML. Although the site doesn’t yet feature animations, it will soon, and Berkowski says the company will use Adobe Flash software to create them.

From the standpoint of back-end technologies, the WooMe team knew the service had to run flawlessly and offer exceptional performance. Berkowski recalls that WooMe had several criteria in mind when selecting a way to deliver audio and video to users. The company needed in-browser, instantly accessible voice and video communication, as well as technologies that would be easy to deploy and use. “Adobe Flash Player is ubiquitous and easy to use—a plus for our end-users because they don’t have to download any special software,” says Berkowski. “In terms of a back-end solution, Flash Media Interactive Server is clearly the best technology on the market and, with its unlimited connection license model, it is the winning choice by far for distribution worldwide.”

Superb performance
Berkowski says deploying the solution was a quick, painless process. WooMe is working together with low-latency hosting provider GNI to deliver voice and video and, explains Berkowski, “optimizing Flash Media Interactive Server to provide the fastest, slickest, lowest latency experience for our customers.” Initially, Berkowski says the WooMe team was concerned about potential latency problems affecting its voice and video services, but says that these concerns proved unfounded. “Flash Media Interactive Server has scaled flawlessly,” he says.

User feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Berkowski says customers indicate that WooMe’s video quality “blows everyone else away” and customers are unanimous in noting that the audio quality exceeds that of other online audio services.

What’s next for WooMe
In the future, WooMe plans to further leverage Flash Media Interactive Server by enabling users to share their video conversations via a video playback feature as a way to better communicate their personality to other users. WooMe is also working on a WooMe experience for mobile devices so that interactive, online speed dating can occur on platforms like mobile phones. Concludes Berkowski, “We’re excited that Adobe is championing live web interaction and engaging, rich-media experiences. We’re confident we made the right choice with Adobe and Flash Media Interactive Server.”

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