Preved is hot

For almost a month, the manager of one of the Moscow banks, Elena, starts her day by turning on her computer. Previously, she hardly used it at home, but now she specifically gets up an hour early to sit on the new site. Elena never allows herself to sit down at the computer without makeup - after all, she has a “live broadcast” there.

The first Russian Internet video chat Preved.ru (the name is taken from a buzzword from Internet jargon - “preved”) has been working for only three weeks, and about 40,000 people are already hanging out on it. And, according to Konstantin Rykov, producer of the Evolution of Entertainment company, which developed the project, another 4,000-5,000 users register daily on Preveda. For the Russian Internet, the figure is quite large: in one of our most popular forums, Krovatka.ru, only 15,000 users have accumulated in 10 years, and 130,000 in Russian LiveJournal over 5 years.

Visual chat is the main feature of the Runet: here you can’t impersonate a two-meter blonde with a model appearance or “the spitting image of Johnny Depp”, you yourself determine how ready you are to open up, but those who have already tried it say that you get used to living for show instantly.

During these three weeks, almost everything was online: dating, heated discussions, quarrels, scandals, and even sex. Rykov says that on average, participants spend 10 hours a day at Preveda, and the organizers assure that this is just the beginning - in a few months they will be living in Preveda around the clock.

Schematically, "Preved.ru" is organized almost like a regular forum - a variety of people gather here, who disperse into "rooms" (on separate pages) according to their interests. Yes, and the interests here are quite ordinary: “dating”, “work”, “Moscow”, “love and flirting”, “erotica”, etc. The main innovation of Preveda.ru is that now you can see your interlocutors and hear - you just need to connect a microphone, headphones and a webcam to your computer (you can keep within $60).

This is the first site of its kind in Russia, and Rykov assures that it is also in the world - at least he is not aware of similar projects abroad. There is, in principle, a similar international Skype service (Russians use it for free calls abroad), but it is still designed for private conversations of two people, while Preved allows dozens and even hundreds to communicate simultaneously.

“In general, various forums and chats are very popular in our country,” says sociologist Sergei Moshkinovsky, who has been conducting Internet research for large marketing agencies for the past 5 years. “And the possibility of eye contact will certainly be received with a bang.” According to Moshkinovsky, about 70% of Russians who have access to the Internet visit "communication sites" at least once a week. And if abroad the majority of visitors to similar sites are teenagers, then here they are people of all ages and social status. “The lack of communication is the main problem of today's adult Russian,” says Moshkinovsky. “And online communication is often the only way to speak out.”

This is what happened to Elena from the bank: she doesn’t really like the environment at work, her friends are married for a long time, and she misses being alone. She tried the usual forums, but did not like it: it was not interesting. “When you see a person, it's a completely different feeling,” Elena explains. “Yes, and when they see you, it’s cool: it spurs and inspires you very much.” It looks like a live conversation: the first reaction is visible, and you can’t hide your own. “It's like a reality show,” she clarifies. - In fact, “Behind the Glass” (the first Russian television reality show . - Newsweek). Only you decide what your viewers will see.

You can see almost everything on Preveda.ru: they eat in public, do their homework, communicate with the authorities, who entered the office at the wrong time, brush their teeth and clean the apartment. And, for example, a user with a speaking nickname “Yozhyg_spit” directs the camera to his bed at night - and everyone can admire a person wrapped in a blanket, occasionally tossing and turning from side to side. “A kind of home television,” Konstantin Rykov calls his project.

For those who like it hot, they take foamy and not very foamy baths, change clothes or just undress and dance in erotic lingerie at Preveda. And in mid-May, the first sex happened on Preveda: the girl Liza1 from Kyiv and her husband did it right in front of the webcam.

“People want to be seen,” the sociologist Moshkinovsky is sure. “This is a normal manifestation of exhibitionism, which is in any person.” And the forum, according to him, makes it possible to do things that you never dare to do in real life. For example, talk about politics if it is not accepted in your company, or impersonate a banker or a writer. “And finally, get naked and feel like a beauty queen,” he sums up. - Still, a normal person on the street will not undress. The Internet gives a sense of pseudo-reality - everything is as if for fun.

True, one of the stars of Preved.ru, real estate specialist Varvara under the nickname "LIA_polka", is sure that the main advantage of "Preved" is that everything is nowhere more real. “You know exactly who you're talking to,” she says. - And then it will not turn out that a person is not at all what you imagine him to be. Appearance, of course, is not the main thing, but very important.

At first, of course, you are a little complex, trying to show off, but then you get used to the camera - and you almost don’t notice. Gradually, it ceases to strain at all, and you don’t even want to turn it off: you live in constant connection with the world.

“In principle, this is how it was conceived: everyone sees everything that you do!” says physics student Andrey, who has been hanging out on Preveda since day one. Now Andrei is planning to expand his virtual space - he is trying to attach a webcam to a pocket computer: then through the phone he will be able to access the Internet from almost anywhere. “Everyone will be able to see where and with whom I walk, in which cafe I dine, to whom I go to visit,” he explains. Andrei is sure that in the near future it is this semi-virtual existence that will become absolutely normal. Even 10 years ago, no one could have imagined that a person could be called when, for example, he was riding the subway. So over time, people will get used to the fact that they are “under the hood” not only of a mobile phone, but also of a webcam.