The big challenge you have isn't appealing to a different market than traditional IRC. That one is the easy problem to solve. The hard bit is getting critical

The big challenge you have isn't appealing to a different market than traditional IRC. That one is the easy problem to solve. The hard bit is getting critical mass. Without enough people logged on and chatting, no one new would stay logged in and chatting. As it's only text based, there's none of the voyerism that chatroulette offered in return for sticking with it.