14 DAY TRIAL // The buys behind the infamous, but revolutionary, Napster are getting together for a sequel, granted one that has nothing to do with the original site, or with digital music for that matter.
Their new project is dubbed Airtime and, from what little is known about it, is something akin to Chatroulette, though probably a bit less 'uncontrollable' than how the random video chat site ultimately proved.
The last time Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker worked on something the music industry came out rather badly hurt. The latest product is nothing that dangerous, but it does hold a lot of promise, from what the two founders are willing to talk about it.
The company has just raised $8.3 million, 6.2€ million, from a number of very high profile investors. The list of investors is never a good way to measure a company, but it's impressive nonetheless.
Airtime's investors include Founders Fund, where Parker is Managing director, Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Yuri Milner of DST, Ron Conway, Google's Marissa Mayer, Ashton Kutcher, will.i.am, Scott Braun, Justin Bieber's manager, and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington.
Airtime, in essence, is a social networking site. But, where as the Facebooks of the world exist to enhance the relationships you already have, Airtime will focus on finding new people.
The random video component of Chatroulette served as inspiration, but the site will be a lot more complex than this and will aim to bring people together based on a number of factors.
"The internet historically has been very good at breaking down boundaries, yet the story of the last 10 years has been erecting more boundaries. So we want to come back full-circle to an earlier moment when the Internet was quite good at breaking down social boundaries," Parker said.
He argues that Facebook is very good at getting you in touch with the people you already know, but it doesn't do anything to help you find new people.
Parker was involved with Facebook's early days, as dramatized, with a fair bit of fiction added for good measure, by the Social Network. His stake in the company has made him a billionaire, at least on paper.