Wildberries develops its own video conferencing and webinar service

The Wildberries marketplace has introduced its own video conferencing and webinar service called WB Stream, as reported by a representative of the company to "Vedomosti." The investment amount in the project is undisclosed. According to the spokesperson, the full launch of WB Stream is planned for 2024, but users can already test it in the web version or through a separate application for iOS and Android.

The development was carried out by in-house specialists, and the service currently allows up to 5,000 users to connect simultaneously. WB Stream was created for the company's internal communication needs as an alternative to popular Western developments. However, the company intends to open access to the service for all users in the future. The representative of Wildberries stated that there are no plans to introduce advertising, charge fees for usage, or monetize the service in any other way.

As noted by the "Vedomosti" correspondent, the service enables video and audio conferencing, messaging in chat, screen sharing with participants, and recording audio during online meetings, among other features. Registration on the Wildberries portal is currently not mandatory for using the service. WB Stream provides both a regular conference mode with equal rights for all participants and a webinar mode where the administrator has extended rights.

However, at present, the service does not offer protection against unauthorized interference in a conference when a third-party user has a link to the online meeting.

According to information disclosed, Wildberries' development appears to be a simple browser-based solution based on open-source WebRTC technology (for streaming data between browsers) or Jitsi (for video calls and file transfer). According to a source from a company developing communication services, this solution is more of a platform promotion element and is not expected to have a significant impact on the market. He also added that the capability to connect 5,000 users simultaneously is extremely low for video services.

The Wildberries representative declined to comment on the use of WebRTC and Jitsi technologies in WB Stream but noted plans for expanding the capabilities of simultaneous user connections.