A decision has finally been made to shut down ICQ, which was a very popular instant messaging service in the early days of the internet. case. A message was shared on the official ICQ website stating that the service will be terminated on June 26.
It was first put into service by Israel-based Mirabilis in November 1996. Yair Goldfinger, one of the founding partners of the company, stated that he and his two friends developed the idea of ICQ, or “I’m Looking for You”, in about 2 months. Although the program was developed in Israel, Mirabilis’ founders started the service in a small apartment in San Jose, California. The reason for this, according to Goldfinger, was that internet access was cheaper in the USA.
It focused on one-on-one conversations rather than chatting in groups, which you can find on services like ICQ, AOL, and even IRC. ICQ also affected other chat and messaging services such as AIM, which was launched 6 months after it. AOL, which later owned AIM, acquired Mirabilis and ICQ for $287 million in June 1998.
With the rise of other instant messaging services and later social networks such as Twitter and Facebook becoming more popular, many users abandoned ICQ. In 2010, AOL sold ICQ to Digital Sky Technologies in Russia.
The company’s name was later changed to VK, and users were advised to switch to VK Messenger or VK WorkSpace as ICQ’s closure announcement came this week.
