TokBox has raised $4 million from a renowned venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and some high-profile angel investors, among them is Jawed Karim, co-founder of YouTube. When a startup received funding from Sequoia Capital, due to the Sequoia Capital’s unique ability in evaluate a new startup, people normally recognized that the startup might well meet the users’ needs and succeed in the market. In fact, this startup has created massive buzz recently and The New York Times reported that Sequoia Capital is investing $4 million in TokBox in an effort to make the site the Web’s next big communication tool.

TokBox is a free chat video chat service, and its main use is to let users to conduct video communication in an easy way without much hassle, and thus no registration or download of their client software, installation or configuration needed in order to use TokBox. Users can use TokBox via a Web browser or through a module embed onto their blogs or social networking sites. Moreover, a single click on the start button can start the video communication through a Flash interface. Though it is still in testing phase, video chat is currently a little bit noisier, their system will be improved when they successfully integrate the TokBox with Adobe Flash Player 9 in the near future.

My sense is that TokBox is pursuing the strategy of “get big fast.” I believed they will use the fund they raised to acquire more users and develop better technology. In the technology settings, this kind of product can’t prove to the users that they’re a “not me-too” product on the Web as there are a lot of players are now offering the similar video chat tools. Imaging the degree of Windows Live users that live chat with their friends with a Web cam on a regular basis, will they switch to this product? However, with the strength of TokBox’s backers, I started to think that if they’re investing in something, it will works, then the real question to this startup is, what is the actual product concept they’re selling, and are the investors looking for the short-term profitability or the long-term profitability of this startup.

Update: TokBox has raised an additional $10M in a Series B funding from Bain Capital and Sequoia Capital in August 2008.