Given the track record of the founders of Airtime, the hype around the new internet company was always going to be big - even before anyone knew what it did.
The “video-chatting” service has been created by the men who helped to transform the music industry and have made billions through backing Facebook. But when it came unveiling the system yesterday, it suffered technical glitches that suggest it may not be ready for show time.
Airtime is a new internet service that allows users to see and talk to their friends or strangers over the internet. If you choose to be adventurous and speak to new people, the service mines the details in your Facebook profile to determine your likes and preferences, finding others with similar interests to chat with.
It is the latest idea from Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning, the founders of Napster, the file-sharing system that some blame for introducing the age of internet piracy but others credit for dragging the music industry into the digital age. Mr Parker has since gone on to become a billionaire, as an early backer and former president of Facebook, the world’s largest social network.
But despite the experience of its founders, Airtime’s celebrity-laden launch in New York turned into a shambles. Demonstrations of the system juddered to a halt in front of the assembled journalists, while the likes of the movie star Jim Carrey and the rapper Snoop Dogg watched on bemused.
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As technical staff rushed on stage to fix the problems, the launch was delayed for almost an hour, leaving the celebrities to fill time by telling jokes to help to lighten the mood.
“We really have no business being in the technology market,” joked Mr Parker in the midst of the problems. “Seriously, it was working all night.”
Despite the teething troubles, many are watching the progress of Airtime closely. The company has raised $25 million from Silicon Valley’s investors. It has hired an experienced staff of computer programmers and designers to build the system.
To use Airtime, people must log in using their Facebook profile. They can start a conversation with a friend or a stranger. If users choose to talk to someone they don’t know, the system will find people to talk to by matching their interests.
Mr Parker, who was played by the actor and singer Justin Timberlake in The Social Network, the Hollywood movie about the rise of Facebook, said the idea behind Airtime was to make the internet a less “dehumanised place ... where people can explore various parts of their personality.”
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A similar system called Chatroulette, launched in 2009 by Andrey Ternovskiy, a Russian teenager, became an internet sensation used by millions, particularly young people on university campuses.
But the popularity of Chatroulette has waned as it gained a reputation of being used by nudists and exhibitionists.
To avoid a similar fate, Airtime includes features that look for “risky signals” from users, such as when a person’s face cannot be seen on screen. About 100 employees are also on standby monitoring images from the video-chats. Those who are flagged for abusing the system will be banned.
However, many worry that the system’s key feature - connecting users to strangers to speak with - might not appeal to enough people to make Airtime successful.
Ryan Kim, from the GigaOm technology blog, and one of the first people to test the system, said: “I might not be the target audience here, but I don’t actually see myself wanting to talk with other people just because we happen to live in the same city or have one thing in common.”