Is Paltalk the alternative to Yahoo chat rooms?

According to Paltalk, some Yahoo groups have already relocated to the Paltalk community --  by Pankaj Maru -- MUMBAI, INDIA: While Yahoo's December 14 deadline to shut messenger public chat rooms features comes near, the global Internet company is facing criticism and rage from millions of users globally. However, it seems like Paltalk - a platform for audio-video based communities - is likely to make most out of this situation.

''We have already begun to see some Yahoo groups relocate to the Paltalk community in the past few days. We would welcome working directly with Yahoo to help them with this challenge," says Paltalk's president and COO, Wilson Kriegel.

''We are working to ensure that Yahoo chat communities are aware of this option. Unlike Yahoo, our core business is to provide group video chat to people around the world,'' adds Kriegal. The US based Paltalk was formed in 1998 and today it has 10 million users using various products and services.

"We have millions of active members with strong communities around the world. We recently translated our software, website and apps into over 15 languages to strengthen our international offering to our already vibrant communities in non-English speaking countries," informs Kriegel, who recently left gaming company Zynga. Like Yahoo, Paltalk messenger has free rich-features like audio, video and text based communication along with file and photo sharing - all in a single window.

Besides, Paltalk messenger easily works with AIM, Yahoo and ICQ allowing users to communicate with their existing contacts and offers live group video communities on the web. "We provide our members with a full set of communications tools to video chat with friends and family around the world. Moreover, we have created an environment where members can meet new friends based on topics and shared interests," explains Kriegel. "Our proprietary moderation tools create a safe, well-lit chat experience, whether you have 5 or 5,000 people chatting at same time," he adds.

SoftBank has invested $6 million in Paltalk some years back, since then the company has been steadily growing with its unique "freemium" business model. "We have a unique freemium business model that has proven to work quite well, as we are a profitable company. We offer a premium product (subscription), users can buy virtual currency and we serve advertising," says Kriegel.

The "one to many" communications provider Paltalk is available on PC, mobile and tablet devices for consumers and businesses; However, it is now focusing more on mobile given the enormous growth of mobile users and devices globally.

''We are focusing on mobile in the early part of 2013 and will also be more active in establishing partnerships with third parties who want to use a white label version of our technology to enable and power video group chat and broadcasting from their own destinations, portal, communities or social networks,'' Kriegel said.