| Seesmic | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Original authors | Loïc Le Meur Johann Romefort |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows,Mac OS (Desktop)Linux (Web) iOS,Android,Windows Phone 7,BlackBerry OS (Mobile) |
| Platform | Microsoft Silverlight (Desktop) |
| Type | Customer relationship management,Social media |
| License | Freeware |
| Website | www |
Seesmic was a suite offreewareweb,mobile, anddesktopapplications which allowed users to simultaneously manageuser accounts for multiplesocial networks, such asFacebook andTwitter.
Launched in 2008 by French entrepreneurLoïc Le Meur, the service was initially a video sharing website, billed as a cross between YouTube and Twitter, allowing short video comments to be published online.[1] Le Meur shut down the service in 2009 due to its stagnating user base, and then relaunched Seesmic as a social networking tool, with a suite of desktop, mobile and web apps integrating streams from Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. Following the failure to monetize the company, in 2011 Seesmic was relaunched yet again as acustomer relations management app.[2]
Starting out life as avideo blogging website, its original aim was to make video uploading from webcams easier to promote online video conversations.[3] Seesmic made its debut at theDemo tech conference where it was called the "Twitter of video".[4] It had 20,000 users and 70,000 viewers per month as of 2008.[5] On 3 April 2008, Seesmic announced that it had purchased Twhirl, anAdobe AIR basedTwitter client.[6]
In 2009, Loïc Le Meur, Seesmic's founder, announced that the video portion of the site had stagnated as it struggled to attract new users. He refocused the site, changing the objective from creating a new video social networking site to creating a suite of tools that would instead aggregate content from other social networking sites such as Twitter andFacebook.[7][8] The video site, whilst remaining available, was relegated to a differentdomain name.
Le Meur moved fromParis toSan Francisco to relaunch Seesmic due to the perception that it would stand a better chance of success there. It was backed by a number of investors, the primary one being Atomico, a venture group that includesNiklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who soldSkype toeBay in 2005 for $2.6 billion.[9]In January 2010 Seesmic acquiredPing.fm.[10] In March 2010, Seesmic reached 1 million registered users.[11]
Seesmic produced a number of social network clients including:
In August 2011, Seesmic announced it was moving into theCustomer Relations Management business, releasing Android andiOS CRM apps that interfaced withSalesforce.com. The former social media apps were being maintained as a "second branch" of the company.[15]
In September 2012, Seesmic was acquired byHootSuite.[16][17]