Parker Hints at How Airtime Will Make Money
By: Cadie Thompson | Technology Editor, CNBC.com
Video ads and premium accounts for users are just a couple of ways Airtime, a start-up, can be monetized, co-founder of the company Sean Parker said in an interview with CNBC.
"Without giving away too much of our thinking, it's pretty obvious in looking at our product ... it's a media experience. People are essentially performing for each other and there are a lot of opportunities to introduce video ads into that experience, Parker said. "But it's not something that we have immediate plans to do."
Airtime, which launched Tuesday, is a video platform that is connected to Facebook and allows users to video chat with friends, meet new people through video chat based on shared interests, and allows users to share video content.
Along with using ads as a means to generate revenue, Parker also hinted at the potential for a paid structure for Airtime.
"There's also a bunch of premium, upgrade type models that you could conceive of that I think would work pretty well," Parker said.
Parker, who co-founded Airtime with Shawn Fanning, said that while there are opportunities to monetize Airtime, the company is focused on building a strong foundation before worrying about cashing in.
"The first step is to build your user base, create a great product, ... build loyalty in your user base, build a network, then gradually, over time, gradually try to figure out the right balance of free versus monitization," Parker said.
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