More Internet Boredom? Try Multiple Video Chats -- Or Some TV Shows
Facebook can be somewhat boring, says Sean Parker, a former investor of Facebook: “There’s a part of me that feels somewhat bored by all of this. There’s no room for serendipity.”
So here comes Parker’s new venture Airtime, a video chat service. And interestingly enough, it is a Facebook application. (Wait, didn’t someone just call Facebook boring?)
Why Airtime? Some 800 million webcams will come online next year through tablets, laptops or whatever. Parker is the visionary who, with Shawn Fanning, brought us Napster in 2000 and upset the music industry no-end.
Some upset here too for sure. But most of this seems intended to cure -- boredom! People might say the same about current TV, except for one thing: TV usage keeps climbing and especially with young viewers! People really must like boredom.
From time to time we hear loudly that the new and shiny Internet is lame. But Facebook keeps growing and is now at 650 million users.
But onto the next thing: Apparently it is not enough to chat with multiple people at the same time via typing on a keyboard. Airtime intends to give people the ability to have multiple chats via multiple screens, where you might need a bigger desktop or laptop computer, depending on your size of your multiple chats.
Perhaps it could be akin to watching several TV shows at the same time – where a video chat with a participant can be just one click away from cancellation. All those development costs down the drain. Get me my agent on line three!
Interestingly enough, the star-studded Airtime announcement included multiple TV and film celebs – Jim Carrey, Snoop Dog and Alicia Keys, among them. And then true to form in this new digital experimental world, Carrey was cut off in a demonstration of the app.
Now that’s boring. Where’s that rerun of “The Vampire Diaries” when you need it?
WAYNE FRIEDMAN
Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost.
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