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TVtag to Shut Down January 1st, Marks Decline in Social TV

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The social TV service TVtag is shutting down effective January 1st, the company announced. It's closing the TVtag.com site and all mobile apps. It's not shuttering the office for good, however, but plans to "refocus our efforts on other initiatives."

TVtag was originally known as GetGlue, a social TV service that launched in 2010. Users would check in for TV shows in order to earn stickers. i.TV, a second screen company based in Utah, purchased the company in 2013. GetGlue took on the name TVtag in January of this year.

Members interested in saving their user data can send an email request to the company.

The announcement underscores how quickly social TV viewing services have declined. A few years back, second-screen apps were popular with both venture capitalists and the press, as the industry envisioned a future where people watched their favorite shows with a phone or tablet in-hand, which they used to access related information.

That future didn't happen, however, and the rapid decline underscores how online video is still in the experimentation stage. The only app to find an audience for social viewing is Twitter, which is used for live-tweeting major events such as awards shows.

Social viewing app Zeebox rebranded as Beamly in April 2014, shifting its focus to TV and celebrity news. 

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