The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about video chat is ‘Nice to Have’ but not more than that. A good incentive to engage in  video would be a fun and rich interface with a great design to keep the site’s ’stickiness’. 6rounds does more than a good job in this field.

Since 6rounds launched last July, they have been adding features constantly. The video platform enables the user to change almost any part of the screen with different skins, effects and images that can be used and changed throughout the chat. While chatting with others you can also hand gifts, share your photos, share friends from your Facebook profile and watch YouTube videos together.

Games are also rapidly being added to 6rounds. This includes geek games such as chess and backgammon, and also more daring ones: ‘truth or dare’ and lately ‘Infected Qwertys’ a multi-user shooting games.

The combination of rich graphical options throughout the chat, and fun befriending options, makes the platform much more than a video chat platform. The fun feeling can attract users. One of the more interesting things I found out while having a conversation with Natasha Shine, 6rounds’ marketing manager, was that 6rounds has more than 120,000 users who utilize the platform’s Google Wave options. In addition, 6rounds enhances social interactions between unfamiliar users by adding chat tips, creating online mutual snapshots and by the end of the year can also share MySpace features.

We were also informed on 6rounds future planes that include:

• Embedding the platform on Facebook, which will probably bring additional users.
• Open API for developers
• Launch of full version by the end of 2010

See 6rounds on The Wadi index.