Chat originator ICQ.com announced to shut down in June!

ICQ, known as the "originator of chatting software", announced that it will cease service on June 26, 2024, which means that the software is coming to an end after nearly 28 years of operation.

ICQ is an instant messaging software that was launched on November 16, 1996 by the Israeli company Mirabilis. The software influenced many popular chat programs at the time, including AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger.

According to public information, ICQ once had more than 100 million users, but with the rise of other chat software and social platforms, many users in the U.S. and around the world have discontinued ICQ. However, although ICQ stopped its service, the official said that users can use VK Messenger and VKWorkSpace instead.

The closure of ICQ has attracted a lot of attention. Netizens have expressed: "the tears of the times", "master green knot" ......

QQ's "Big Brother"

According to the Southern Metropolis Daily, ICQ used to have a huge influence, once in the Asian market accounted for 70% of the user base, in the domestic is accounted for 80%.

ICQ is not only the pioneer of instant messaging, but also the "big brother" of QQ. 1999, Ma Huateng launched China's OICQ, which, according to China Foundation News, is an abbreviation of "O" for "Opening", which stands for "More Open ICQ". The extra letter "O" is an abbreviation for "Opening", which stands for "More Open ICQ", and was later renamed QQ in 2000.

Tencent was hesitant to do QQ, mainly because it didn't see the opportunity to make money. They didn't have a lot of ideas. There were also several Chinese versions of ICQ on the market, and Tencent had its first heated debate over the matter. Ma Huateng finally made the final decision.

OICQ 99 beta build 0210, the first version of OICQ, was officially released on February 10, 1999.

All the founders remembered that no ceremonies were performed on this day, according to a description of the Tencent biography cited by China Foundation Newspaper. Before the release, Ma Huateng and others reserved 200 numbers for external release starting with 10201. "The first 200 numbers were reserved for ourselves, and at that time, we thought that 200 reserved numbers would be enough to meet the demand of the growth in the number of staff in the next ten or eight years." Ma reserved the number 10001 for himself.

In April 1999, OICQ had 500 online users. By November, the number of users exceeded 1 million.

QQ Show was introduced in 2003, allowing QQ users to design their own personalized virtual images by purchasing clothes, accessories and environmental scenes with Q coins.

The popularity of QQ Show was beyond everyone's expectation. In the first six months of QQ Show's launch, 5 million people bought the service, spending an average of about 5 yuan, an expense far greater than that of purchasing a "beautiful number". Since then, QQ has been surging forward, leading Tencent to become what we all know now.

Taking the domain name as an example, ICQ consists of three letters, while QQ is a double-stacked word, which is easier to remember and spread, leaving a deep impression on people. ICQ.com was registered in 1998, while QQ.com was registered as early as 1995. This highlights the importance of domain name selection for brand impact.