Napster Founders Reunite Under A New Service – AirTime

June 7, 2012 by
Filed under: Announcements & Events, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services 

Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning, both American citizens and developers of the file-sharing platform called Napster have reunited and launched a new service for friends to video chat on the internet.

The two masterminds behind Napster launched AirTime at an event that featured Hollywood stars such as Jim Carrey, talk show host Jimmy Fallon, and TV star Joel McHale. Also making an appearance, but this time as live video chats were the rapper Snoop Dogg and actress Olivia Munn.

Due to technical difficulties video chats between some celebrities were only ten minutes long while the staff rushed to fix the problems. Parker and his partner are aiming to overcome these difficulties as soon as possible since the service will be available to Facebook in the near future. To use AirTime one must have a Facebook account.

On that subject Parker said that the service is not trying to rival established social networks, but rather act like one. Their goal is to make the internet space a fun place to be, with friends who can video chat with each other in real time, while also ensuring their anonymity. The company will focus on safety as it’s one of the prime concerns of today’s internet users.

“We’re trying to restore serendipity to the Internet,” Parker said.

“There’s never been an environment like this for live performance on the Internet.”

As for how Napster changed everything in the 90’s, both of them said that they had no idea of the impact it would have.

“We knew the product was big but we dramatically underestimated the scale,” Fanning said in an on-stage interview with Fallon.

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