Rounds (www.rounds.com) announced today the immediate retirement of its “Meet New People” feature, intending to focus on longer, more meaningful video conversations between real friends and family.

As the cross-platform provider of the web’s best hangout experiences, 50% of all video conversations on Rounds are four minutes and longer, viewed as ‘meaningful’ by the company. The average length of these meaningful video hangouts is eleven minutes for mobile conversations and over twenty-one minutes from Rounds’ Facebook app – with over 10% of Facebook conversations lasting more than thirty minutes.

Rounds Video Chat Hangout, the company’s mobile offering launched last December, has always required Facebook friendship between users for its unique combination of video communication and online entertainment. Now Rounds’ 7 million-user strong Facebook app, which formerly employed a social matching algorithm allowing users to meet like-minded new people, will also require pre-existing Facebook friendship for users to interact.

“Rounds helps friends and family members feel closer when distance separates them – by sharing activities, games and experiences in longer and more meaningful conversations,” said Rounds CEO and co-founder Dany Fishel. “Our users’ privacy and safety is our first and foremost priority; it’s a subject on which we will not compromise. Although random chatting with a different stranger every five seconds may still appeal to certain crowds, we decided to retire this feature and leave our competitors to cater to them.”

70% of Rounds users are under 25-years-old, another important reason behind the company’s emphasis on significant conversations between people with real-world ties. “With so many teens and tweens making Rounds their hangout network of choice,” added Fishel, “we decided to focus on what our users really want: memorable experiences with the people they care about most.”

Rounds is available as a free download for iPhone, Android, Facebook, Mac/PC and the web via www.rounds.com. An optimized iPad version and all-new Rounds destination site connecting users between mobile, desktop and Facebook, with new features and shared games, activities and experiences are expected in mid 2013.

About Rounds

As the web’s first social “hangout network,” Rounds combines online entertainment with video communication to bring friends closer together for a fun, live experience across social networks, operating systems and devices. Bridging the offline and online worlds, Rounds uses shared activities, games and video to give friends the feeling of hanging out in real life. Rounds has raised a total of $5 million in funding from industry leading investors, including Verizon Ventures, Rhodium, DFJ's Tim Draper, and other private investors. Download the Rounds application and get more information at www.rounds.com.