Napster founder Entrepreneurship Airtime: Video chat can fire

Remember the other actor at social networking site, Parker founder of the music sharing service, "Sean Parker"? He and Fanning (Shawn Fanning) started their own new ventures: Video chat website airtime.

Two well-known entrepreneurs, tens of millions of of dollars in investment, Alicia (Alicia Keys) and Carrey (Jim Carrey) Such celebrities to join, which sounds like the success of a start-up business secret. However, although airtime for a while hot, but now far from success.

The site was created four months ago, but it has undergone two transformations. The latest news shows that the company has lost some of its key staff and dismissed some of its staff, looking grim.

Airtime's story reflects the general difficulties of startups, whether or not they are well-connected, and it's hard to win users when so many sites, apps and services compete for the attention of users.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Partner and Airtime board member Bin Gauden (Bing Gordon) said: "The average life cycle of the application is shortened." It's always easy to go to other apps. ”

AppData, a Facebook application Data analysis agency, said airtime had only 400 users a day, 10,000 a month. But Parker and other executives at the company said the figures were untrue. Both Nielsen and comscore, an independent analyst, say airtime's traffic is negligible and has not yet been included in their statistical categories.

Airtime uses a Facebook account to log in and then randomly match the objects you can chat to (and the anonymous user on the right looks like Facebook founder Zuckerberg). Since its release, airtime has adjusted the route several times. Initially, it called itself the home version of Chatroulette (a random video chat site founded by a Russian teenager). Parker and Fanning had tried to acquire Chatroulette, but eventually failed, finally decided to create their own version.

Airtime received the first financing in 2010, but it was not until Erly bought a photo-sharing company created by Hulu that a product was taken. This June, airtime the first time after the transformation.

After the user registers airtime through the Facebook account, the service analyzes the user's profile and matches a stranger with similar interests. Then they can chat and watch YouTube videos together. Airtime can also be used for video chats with Facebook friends. Soon, it also introduces the ability to send video messages and retrieve video responses.

Airtime from a number of star investors in the hands of financing 33.5 million of dollars, including Kleiner Perkins, Anderson Hollowitz fund, Google VCs and so on. Pakdian said the company's current funding is not a problem.

Airtime's success is the reputation of Parker, who is known for his success in discovering the future star of the technology industry and pushing it into the mainstream. His successful experience at Napster, Facebook and Spotify means that insiders are waiting to see if he can succeed in airtime.

Parker admits that his participation has increased airtime pressure, but he is not worried about his reputation in the tech sector. "If I were worried about my reputation, I wouldn't start a business," he said. The creation of a company has always been a series of attempts, and the process has always been painful. ”

Although airtime has not yet attracted many users, video chats have become popular among young users, travelers and families. Analysts say it is only a matter of time before it gets more attractive.