Napster co-founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning have reunited to launch a new video communication site ‘Airtime’.
The duo have been creating and investing in various online start-ups individually since its shutdown, with varying degrees of success.
The Airtime launch event featured live appearances from celebrities such as Jim Carrey, talk show host Jimmy Fallon and TV star Joel McHale. Rapper Snoop Dogg and actress Olivia Munn were represented via online chats.
Airtime, a video-communication service at its core, is being positioned as a social network to “re-humanize” the internet, and “make it more fun”.
The service allows users to communicate with their online friends, friends-of-friends, and even people outside of their circles (via Facebook, to which it is connected).
Unlike ‘random’ video chat services, such as Chatroulette and Omegle, Airtime analyzes its users’ Facebook profiles, stores their ‘likes’, and thus, manages to throw two people into a video chat who have something in common, which allows them to talk about their shared interests.
