PARIS: A pioneering web messaging service that after boasted 100 million accounts has shut down, a message on the Russian-owned ICQ web site stated Wednesday (Jun 26).
ICQ – styled to sound like “I search you” – was developed by a bunch of Israeli programmers in 1996 as a approach for customers to textual content chat in real-time, a novelty within the mid-Nineties.
Early web big AOL snapped it up in 1998 and it grew into a serious going concern, with the US agency claiming greater than 100 million accounts within the early 2000s.
By the point ICQ was bought in 2010 to the Russian firm that has since turn into VKontakte – usually dubbed Russia’s Fb – it was previous its peak.
Nevertheless, the service briefly hit the information in 2018 when Russia banned Telegram and the federal government informed journalists it might shift its communications to ICQ.
A message on ICQ’s web site on Wednesday confirmed the service had been discontinued and urged customers to enroll to VKontakte’s different messaging service.