• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

FedEx CEO says we are in the middle of the biggest supply chain shift he’s seen in 35 years: ‘We are the referendum’

2

26 Meta employees accuse Mark Zuckerberg of using AI to target 8,000 layoffs against workers on medical, parental or family leave

3

Trump's 'American Flag Blue' in the Lincoln Memorial pool is already gray — and the Olympic canoer 'vandal' is fighting his arrest

1

FedEx CEO says we are in the middle of the biggest supply chain shift he’s seen in 35 years: ‘We are the referendum’

2

26 Meta employees accuse Mark Zuckerberg of using AI to target 8,000 layoffs against workers on medical, parental or family leave

3

Trump's 'American Flag Blue' in the Lincoln Memorial pool is already gray — and the Olympic canoer 'vandal' is fighting his arrest

Exclusive: Sean Parker’s Airtime has quietly relaunched as OkHello (and it’s actually working)

By
Erin Griffith
Erin Griffith
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Erin Griffith
Erin Griffith
Down Arrow Button Icon
February 25, 2014, 3:15 AM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

FORTUNE — We all remember Airtime, the biggest, flashiest startup launch of 2012. Napster co-founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning had reunited with $33 million from Silicon Valley’s top investors for a star-studded, over-the-top launch event. Jim Carrey was there. Snoop Dogg was there. Jimmy Fallon, Ed Helms, Martha Stewart, Joel McHale, Olivia Munn, Alicia Keys, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus were there. Parker boasted Airtime would “rewire the social graph.”

Just as memorable: the inevitable flop. Airtime was ill-conceived for many reasons (desktop instead of mobile, confusing use-case, the site was buggy), and the product — a video chat system — never lived up to its hype. The company quickly became a punch line. Layoffs ensued. At one point a reporter pointed out that literally no one in the world was using Airtime. Parker said the whole experience was “like eating glass.”

And yet, I continued to see Airtime nametags at tech parties and meetups. LinkedIn accounts declared new jobs at Airtime. Last March, TechCrunch reported that Airtime had recruited Daniel Klaus, who founded a media incubator called K2, to lead a complete reboot of the company. Parker would remain CEO, but Klaus would run things as President. (It’s currently unclear how large of a role Parker or Fanning have in OkHello’s day-to-day operations.)

MORE: Dropbox raises $350 million

Now, almost a year later, Fortune has discovered, and sources have confirmed the reboot. The hyped-up startup has taken the exact opposite approach this time around. Rather than a big, flashy launch, Airtime has kept its latest project on lockdown for the last 10 months.

It’s called OkHello, and it’s been live in the App Store since last April. OkHello has been featured by the App store 46 different times in 28 countries, but never by a tech blog or news outlet. It appears to have recently launched on Android as well.

OkHello has carefully hidden any connection to Airtime. But subtle clues reveal who’s behind the app. As an intrepid Quora poster points out, Airtime and OkHello’s branding and illustrations have the same distinctive style (including a recycled script “hello”), courtesy of Airtime’s illustrator, Shayma Golden, who has been at the company for more than two years.

OkHello/Airtime did not respond to requests for comment.

More surprising than how long the app’s been kept a secret is the fact that it’s actually working.

OkHello has been in the App Store’s top 100 social media apps for the majority of the time it’s been live, according to app analytics service App Annie. It’s hit the top 10 on several occasions.

So what is it? Similar to Airtime, OkHello is a video chat service, except on mobile instead of desktop. From the app’s own description:

OkHello makes group video spontaneous and simple. It’s perfect for connecting friends, families, and all kinds of groups on video.

Users can share photos, videos and text chats, and toggle between texting, audio chatting, and video chatting. And there are stickers, too. Kids love their stickers.

After its failed launch, it’s easy to see why Airtime would want to keep its latest project under wraps for as long as possible. But it was bound to come out as OkHello grows in popularity. Thanks to WhatsApp’s $19 billion sale to Facebook (FB), all eyes are on mobile messaging. Now we know who’s behind the category’s latest up-and-comer.

About the Author
By Erin Griffith
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in

Moonshot’s Kimi K3 pushes Chinese AI into Fable-level territory
AsiaChina
Moonshot’s Kimi K3 pushes Chinese AI into Fable-level territory
By Nicholas GordonJuly 16, 2026
2 hours ago
Man in suit gesturing
Big TechNetflix
Netflix used AI to produce 17 minutes of a documentary ‘twice as fast and at half the cost’—as streaming competition drives up content spending to $20 billion
By Amanda GerutJuly 16, 2026
3 hours ago
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky’s X account was hijacked in an AI slop hack pushing crypto tokenization
CybersecurityTech
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky’s X account was hijacked in an AI slop hack pushing crypto tokenization
By Rachel VentrescaJuly 16, 2026
5 hours ago
tillis
PoliticsCongress
Epstein survivors say Todd Blanche ignored them. Now one Republican senator is making him listen
By Alanna Durkin Richer, Joey Cappelletti and The Associated PressJuly 16, 2026
8 hours ago
merck
HealthDrugs
The cholesterol shot you couldn’t afford is now a pill
By Matthew Perrone and The Associated PressJuly 16, 2026
8 hours ago
t
North AmericaTariffs
Tariff Man’s money machine broke. Now he’s trying to fix it with a forced‑labor crusade
By Paul Wiseman and The Associated PressJuly 16, 2026
8 hours ago

Most Popular

FedEx CEO says we are in the middle of the biggest supply chain shift he’s seen in 35 years: ‘We are the referendum’
C-Suite
FedEx CEO says we are in the middle of the biggest supply chain shift he’s seen in 35 years: ‘We are the referendum’
By Fortune EditorsJuly 15, 2026
2 days ago
26 Meta employees accuse Mark Zuckerberg of using AI to target 8,000 layoffs against workers on medical, parental or family leave
Law
26 Meta employees accuse Mark Zuckerberg of using AI to target 8,000 layoffs against workers on medical, parental or family leave
By Barbara Ortutay, Alexandra Olson and The Associated PressJuly 15, 2026
2 days ago
Trump's 'American Flag Blue' in the Lincoln Memorial pool is already gray — and the Olympic canoer 'vandal' is fighting his arrest
Politics
Trump's 'American Flag Blue' in the Lincoln Memorial pool is already gray — and the Olympic canoer 'vandal' is fighting his arrest
By Matthew Daly and The Associated PressJuly 16, 2026
15 hours ago
He sold his last company to Palantir. Now he's betting $32 million that robots can fix construction's labor crisis
Innovation
He sold his last company to Palantir. Now he's betting $32 million that robots can fix construction's labor crisis
By Lily Mae LazarusJuly 15, 2026
2 days ago
MacKenzie Scott, Melinda French Gates, and Lauren Sánchez Bezos are rewriting the rules of billionaire giving—one quietly, one strategically, one very publicly
Newsletters
MacKenzie Scott, Melinda French Gates, and Lauren Sánchez Bezos are rewriting the rules of billionaire giving—one quietly, one strategically, one very publicly
By Sydney LakeJuly 14, 2026
2 days ago
After donating $48 billion to the Gates Foundation, Warren Buffett is quietly ending one of the biggest philanthropic relationships in history
North America
After donating $48 billion to the Gates Foundation, Warren Buffett is quietly ending one of the biggest philanthropic relationships in history
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 14, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.