ICQ is an abbreviation for "I Seek You," and it debuted in November 1996, laying the foundation for a standalone instant messaging client. Think about how long ago it was... At the time, Microsoft's groundbreaking product, Windows 95, had just come out, Nintendo had just launched the N64, and those who had a reason to own a phone were actually using their phones to talk.
ICQ 由以色列公司 Mirabilis 在不到两个月的开发时间内推出,它早于并影响了当时许多流行的聊天程序,包括 AOL Instant Messenger、Yahoo! Messenger 和 MSN Messenger。
Incredibly, ICQ also outmaneuvered its main competitors and held out to this day, with AIM shutting down at the end of 2017, Yahoo's communications project shutting down in mid-2018, and Microsoft bringing its Messenger client to its death in 2014.
ICQ offers several innovative features, including multi-user chat, asynchronous offline messaging, recoverable file transfers, and searchable directories.
Users are given a unique User Identification Number (UIN) when they register. This number (somehow, more than 20 years later, I still remember mine vividly) along with a custom handle and an attached email address can be used to search for other users on the platform.
Mirabilis enjoyed a first-mover advantage, attracting millions of early internet users who were attracted to the offer of chatting with friends and family in real time. ICQ's success also attracted potential acquirers, prompting AOL to acquire all of Mirabilis' assets in 1998 for $287 million. Total contingency payments from fiscal year 2001 were reported to have increased by another $120 million, bringing the total value of the deal to over $400 million.
Over the next three years, AOL managed to increase the number of users of ICQ tenfold, and by the spring of 2001, the number of registered users had exceeded 100 million.
The next decade will once again reinvent personal communication, shifting conversations from mouse and keyboard to mobile devices. In 2010, AOL sold ICQ to Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies (later renamed Mail.ru Group, now VK) for $187.5 million.
ICQ is no longer available on the App Store or Google Play Store, and around 2022, the owners of ICQ started to favor the VK messenger platform instead.
Some may be surprised that ICQ exists, even though it no longer seems to be in an active development phase. In recent years, the platform seems to have shifted its focus to desktop applications (Windows, Mac, and even Linux) with a web version that runs in the browser.
The latest stable version of the desktop version was released in April 2023, while the Android and iOS apps have been withdrawn from the official app store, and their owner, VK, has switched to promoting VK messenger. However, the app is still available in Huawei's AppGallery.
Today's ICQ is a far cry from the basic user interface of yesteryear, with a modern design with familiar features like push audio messages, video calls, and stickers. It also includes smart replies and autofill, similar to the features found in Gmail. Still, its core feature – the ability to chat with friends and family – remains the same.
Those expecting a similar experience to the original desktop app are likely to be disappointed, as the current version has much more in common with modern chat apps than venerable instant messaging clients.
According to VK, as of 2022, 11 million people use the instant messaging platform every month. Sure, it's not as popular as it used to be, but it's still operating, which is stronger than most of its early competitors.
图片Joyu Wang, WSJ
In early 2021, WhatsApp updated its privacy policy, and some Hong Kong users abandoned Facebook-owned apps in favor of a nostalgic alternative. ICQ's downloads skyrocketed 35x that week, surpassing the total number of downloads for the entire fourth quarter of 2020.
If you're interested in reconnecting with old contacts, then it's safe to assume that most users have already moved to other platforms. Considering that ICQ is owned and operated by the Russian internet services conglomerate VK (formerly the Mail.ru Group), most people would not mistake ICQ for a pillar of privacy protection.
In this era of tech sanctions and restrictions, we learned that the Russian government had asked to install certain apps on new phones sold in the country, and ICQ was one of them. However, in an informal survey we conducted on Russian users, they said that the most popular messaging platforms in the country are Telegram, WhatsApp, and VK, and that Viber is no longer popular.
Visit:
https://icq.com/