More than a decade after launching Napster, co-founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning rolled out their latest product this morning—the video-chat platform Airtime—and simultaneously hosted a star-press-and-glitch-filled event in New York to hype the service.
The first thing to know about Airtime is that it’s Facebook video calling meets Chatroulette, except with (supposedly) no penis shots. Users who are logged in to Facebook can access the Airtime Web app and video chat with their Facebook friends, the main difference being that Airtime users can search YouTube and share videos during a chat within the app with both parties watching simultaneously. “Until Airtime that wasn’t possible,” Parker said, adding that while we’re reputed to live in the age of the real-time Web, that term “is kind of a misnomer,” given the turn-based nature of social games. He used this assertion to position Airtime as a “platform for synchronous interactions” like sharing videos.