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Napster co-founder Sean Parker, who became Facebook's first president, launched a new service yesterday, saying he had become "bored" by Facebook. The Airtime service, created with fellow Napster founder Shawn Fanning, allows video chats and file sharing with friends and strangers. Its star-studded NYC launch wasn't boring, with musicians and comedians like Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys, and Jim Carrey on hand, but it wasn't a great success, either: It was plagued by glitches, and Parker's efforts to demonstrate the service repeatedly failed, reports Bloomberg.
Parker said he created the new service because he felt there was a lack of "serendipity" on Facebook. "Facebook isn’t helping you make new connections, Facebook doesn’t develop new relationships. Facebook is just trying to be the most accurate model of your social graph," he said at the event. "There’s a part of me that feels somewhat bored by all of this." Parker and Fanning's track record of success makes it hard to write them off, but Airtime appears to strongly resemble Chatroulette, and it won't be a surprise if it falls out of favor just as quickly, decides Greg Sandoval at CNET.
