Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning, the brains behind Napster, revealed a new social video network Airtime on Tuesday. This new social video network is built on Facebook and can be used directly from a browser.
Airtime allows people to do video chat using their Facebook account. This browser-based video chat service can be used for video-chatting with one's Facebook friends or to match up with a complete stranger. Moreover, people can start video-chatting right away as there is no application to install.
Existing Facebook users just need a webcam to start. An interesting feature of Airtime is, people can start to watch a YouTube video or select a video that they have shared to Facebook and can watch it with his video-chatting partner. It's just like watching a movie or a video in person.
Sean Parker called Facebook "boring" at the launch event of his new social video network service. This celebrity-studded event was started by Jimmy Fallon with a Q&A. Stars like Jim Carrey, Snoop Dogg, Olivia Munn, Julia Louis-Dreyfus also joined this event.
All the videos people have shared to Facebook so far will be showed under their interests. Users just have to select a video they like and can watch it with their chat partner in real-time. People can also meet up with strangers based on their Facebook interests and location. But there is nothing to worry about as everyone's identity is safe until they choose to share it. If a user didn't like his chat partner, he can just click "next" to select another chat partner.
This whole service sounds quite similar to Chatroulette. This site faced a lot of problem when it tried to handle inappropriate content. But a positive side of Airtime is that people's Facebook account will be connected to it.
People will be able to rate the strangers by clicking the "star" button. Airtime users with lots of achievements and badges will be like celebrities of this social video networking service as people find them to fun to chat with. People with an interest to make new connections can sure try out this new service.
