Qwiki was a

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

–based

startup A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend to ...

automated video production company acquired by

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on July 2, 2013 for a reported $50 million. Qwiki released an

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

app that automatically turns the pictures and videos from a user's camera roll into movies to share. The company's initial product, an

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

application that created video summaries of over 3 million search terms, was downloaded more than 3 million times and named by

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

as the best "Search and Reference" application of 2011. After integrating this technology in the

Bing Bing most often refers to: * Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer * Microsoft Bing, a web search engine Bing may also refer to: Food and drink * Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread * Bing (soft drink), a UK brand * Bing cherry, a varie ...

search engine and launching video creation tools for major publishers in cooperation with

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

, the company launched Qwiki for iPhone, which received Apple's Editor's Choice and was mentioned as an Honoree in the 2013 Webby's in two categories. Time Inc. named Qwiki one of “10 NYC Startups to Watch” for 2013. The company's investors included cofounders of Facebook, YouTube and Groupon. After a meeting between Doug Imbruce and

Marissa Mayer Marissa Ann Mayer (; born May 30, 1975) is an American business executive and investor who served as President (corporate title), president and chief executive officer of Yahoo! from 2012 to 2017, when it was sold to Verizon. She was a long-tim ...

, the company was acquired for $50 million. Imbruce was the Co-founder and CEO of Qwiki. The company's other Co-founder was Louis Monier, inventor of the

Altavista AltaVista was a web search engine established in 1995. It became one of the most-used early search engines, but lost ground to Google and was purchased by Yahoo! in 2003, which retained the brand, but based all AltaVista searches on its own sear ...

search engine.

Company history

Qwiki launched in alpha testing mode on January 24, 2011 after winning the TechCrunch Disrupt Award in 2010. Soon after Google offered to buy Qwiki for $100-150 million which it declined. In January 2011, Qwiki raised $8 million in Series A financing, a round that was led primarily by

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

co-founder

Eduardo Saverin Eduardo Luiz Saverin ( , ; born March 19, 1982) is a Brazilian billionaire entrepreneur and angel investor, known for having co-founded Facebook. In 2012, he owned about 2% of Facebook shares, valued at approximately $2 billion at the time. Base ...

. Other investors included

Jawed Karim Jawed Karim (born October 28, 1979) is an American software engineer and Internet entrepreneur. He is one of the co-founders of YouTube and the first person to upload a video to the site. The site's inaugural video, "Me at the zoo", uploaded o ...

(co-founder, YouTube) and Pradeep Sindhu (co-founder, Juniper Networks). Institutional investors included Lerer Media Ventures, Tugboat Ventures and Contour Venture Partners. The individual investor syndicate was arranged by New York City-based Felix Investments. On January 24, 2011, Qwiki launched its public alpha. In March 2011, Qwiki raised an additional $1 million from

Groupon Groupon, Inc. is an American global e-commerce marketplace connecting subscribers with local merchants by offering activities, travel, goods and services in 13 countries. Based in Chicago, Groupon was launched there in November 2008, launching ...

and

Lightbank Lightbank is a financial organization that specializes in making venture capital investments including seed investments, Series A round and late-stage investments in companies across the United States. The company was founded in 2010, and is hea ...

co-founders

Brad Keywell Bradley A. Keywell (born October 1969) is an American billionaire entrepreneur. He is the founder and executive chairman of Uptake Technologies, an industrial AI software provider. He is an early investor of Tempus AI, co-founder of Groupon, Ec ...

and

Eric Lefkofsky Eric Paul Lefkofsky (born September 2, 1969) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the founder and CEO of Tempus AI, and the co-founder of Groupon, Echo Global Logistics (ECHO), InnerWorkings (INWK), and Mediaocean. , he is also a co ...

, bringing the total raised to date to $10.5 million. In April 2011 Qwiki released an

App version of its service. The application has an additional feature not present in the web version that lets the user browse

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...

which displays Qwiki annotations at certain points linked to content relevant to those locations. Seven weeks after launch, the Qwiki App was downloaded over 500,000 times. In February 2012, Qwiki relocated to New York City from its Bay Area offices in order to be closer to major media organizations. In May 2012, Qwiki launched a new platform for bloggers and online publishers including a partnership with ABC News. The television network used Qwiki technology on ABCNews.com and GoodMorningAmerica.com In June 2012, Bing announced that it would display Qwiki videos on Bing search pages just below Wikipedia and that users will be able to play Qwikis without leaving their search. In February 2013, Qwiki for iPhone launched on the App Store as Editors' Choice. The app was downloaded more than 125K times in the first 6 days after launch. In May 2013,

Time Inc. Time Inc. (also referred to as Time & Life, Inc. later on, after their two onetime flagship magazine publications) was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New ...

named Qwiki one of "10 NYC Startups to Watch for 2013". In July 2013, Yahoo acquired Qwiki for $50 million. In September 2014, Yahoo announced that Qwiki would shut down on November 1.

References

{{Reflist American websites Internet properties established in 2011 Web crawlers Yahoo! acquisitions