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Qik, an Early Social Video Networking App, Will Be Shut Down

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The social video networking app Qik will close down on April 30, 2014, announced Skype. Skype purchased Qik in January, 2011, for an undisclosed sum later revealed to be $150 million.

StreamingMedia.com first covered Qik in beta in February, 2009, when it, Kyte, and Flixwagon were bringing mobile video to social networking. At the time, Qik was focused on streaming live video and creating premium services for paid customers.

"There are a number of folks using it for professional purposes, and they've indicated that there are a number of services they'd be willing to pay for," Bhaskar Roy, Qik's co-founder and vice president of product marketing, told StreamingMedia.com. He noted that the average Qik video was 107 seconds long.

Less than two years later, Qik was acquired by Skype, which wanted to add premium video communication services to its portfolio. Four months after that, Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 billion.

Yesterday, Skype sent an email to Qik member alerting them that the service will shut down on April 30, 2014. At that time, all Qik apps will stop working and shared videos will no longer be available. Qik members who want to keep their videos need to download them from the online Qik dashboard before the end of April. 

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