How it began
ICQ was created in 1996 by Mirabilis, an Israeli software company. Developers Yair Goldfinger, Arik Vardi, Sefi Vigiser and Amnon Amir built it so that personal computer users could communicate instantly with each other, as users of UNIX machines already could. The company was founded in June 1996, with Arik Vardi's father Yossi Vardi among the founders, and the program was released in November 1996 as a free download. The name comes from the English phrase I seek you.
Before it existed
Real-time chat already existed before ICQ. Internet Relay Chat was the most common platform at the time, and computers running the UNIX operating system let their users message one another directly. What ordinary personal computer users lacked was a stand-alone program built around one-to-one conversations. ICQ offered a fully centralized service with individual user accounts, a model that later services such as AOL Instant Messenger followed.
How it works
Users downloaded the software and registered to receive a unique identification number, known as a UIN, which connected them to a large network of servers. ICQ began as a simple chat program for computers running Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS. It later added audio and video chat, text messages to cellular telephones, e-mail, file transfer and internet telephony.
How it spread
Mirabilis did no traditional marketing and relied mostly on word of mouth, yet the service gained millions of users. America Online acquired Mirabilis on June 8, 1998, for 287 million dollars up front plus 120 million dollars in later payments. ICQ reached its peak in 2001 with about 100 million users. It then lost ground to other messengers in many countries, while staying popular in Russia and eastern Europe.
Where it stands today
AOL sold ICQ to the Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies, later renamed Mail.ru Group and then VK. The new owner invested in turning it from a desktop client into a mobile messaging system. On May 24, 2024, the ICQ website announced that the service would close, and it shut down on June 26, 2024, almost 28 years after its launch. Users were advised to move to VK messaging products.
