Tinychat Encroaches Ustream's and Stickam's Areas

Tinychat, a rapidly growing bootstrapped startup, announced on November 16 2009 the launch of Tinychat.tv, which is in fact a Ustream-like platform that would offer users the possibility to live stream any video or show hosted on Tinychat. The new service uses the Tinychat's API as its basis and allows people to launch a personalized page and channel for initiating multi-user shows. Furthermore, Tinychat will not charge any cost for those using the bandwidth, and enables members to fully modify the interface of the page where the videos are placed.

One of the major benefits of this platform is that it permits visitors to post comments on the preferred videos using other social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, while also supporting user subscription to any show.

On the other hand, developers might be interested in the platform since Tinychat.tv is merely one of the numerous uses that can be achieved by customizing Tinychat's API, not to mention the multitude of purposes a live streaming video site could serve (ranging from marketing and promoting, and going all the way to entertainment).

Startup Tinychat was initially launched as a basic IRC-style (Internet Relay Chat) chatroom tool that aimed to complement discussion on services such as Twitter, and it has constantly increased its value by integrating innovative features, including video chat and screensharing. Moreover, Tinychat seamlessly supports Facebook Connect, thus empowering users to share and recommend their favorite shows.

One of the Tinychat founders, Dan Blake, has recently announced that the platform is quite popular for bootstrapped startups, being used for 5 million minutes per day. Therefore, the new release of Tinychat.tv will only help them strengthen its browser-based communication platform making it a notable competitor for other similar applications developed by large companies or venture-backed startups. After all, crossing the border to Stickam and Ustream functionality will definitely increase Tinychat's economical value.