What does the instant messaging service ICQ stand for?

“What does the instant messaging service ICQ stand for?” — It stands for “I Seek You.” The name is a sound-based abbreviation: the letters I-C-Q resemble the phrase when spoken aloud.

ICQ was created by Mirabilis, an Israeli company founded in June 1996 by Yair Goldfinger, Sefi Vigiser, Amnon Amir, Arik Vardi, and Yossi Vardi. The service was released in November 1996 and became one of the first widely adopted standalone instant-messaging platforms, giving users individual accounts and real-time one-to-one conversations.

Its users were identified by UINs, or User Identification Numbers, rather than by usernames alone. Early UINs began at 100,000 and were assigned sequentially, a system that made short, memorable numbers especially desirable.

AOL acquired Mirabilis in 1998 for $287 million up front, plus performance-based payments. ICQ later moved to Mail.Ru Group, now VK. At its peak around 2001, it had more than 100 million registered accounts. Despite its historical influence on services such as AIM and later chat apps, ICQ shut down on June 26, 2024.