Rabb.it
 | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines for companies and organizations. (May 2019) |
| URL | kast |
|---|---|
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | 2015 |
Rabbit, also known as Rabb.it, launched to users in 2015, was a California-based video-streaming website where multiple people can remotely browse and watch the same content in real-time.[1]
A host can create a room, invite others to it (or, alternatively, set it to public and allow any user to join), then, whatever content the host opens, other users are displayed also.[1] Rabbit offers text and video chat.[2]
Unlike, for instance, YouTube and Netflix, Rabbit doesn't host the content viewed on it, but only streams it. A room is a virtualized Google Chrome instance. Thus, any content that can be viewed in Chrome can also be viewed on Rabbit.[3] The built-in web browser has an ad-blocker pre-installed.[4]
After a rough beta release in 2013 which offered limited Mac-only functionality, the company redesigned Rabbit as a web app in the summer of 2014, which took off, adding 400,000 users by the end of the year.[3] With 3.6 million monthly active users, Rabbit users view content using the service for an average of 12.5 hours a month, with the most active users doing so for 28.5 hours a month.[1] The company has 30 employees.[1]
In July 2019, Rabbit CEO Amanda Richardson announced that the site was soon to cease operations; a round of VC funding had failed in May, and Richardson was forced to let her team go and begin shutting Rabbit down.[5] Despite announcements that all staff members had been let go, the site remained functional until the 31st of July 2019, when an announcement that its assets would be acquired by fellow streaming service Kast.[6] Rabb.it was shut down following this announcement.
References
- ^ a b c d "Rabbit lets you remotely watch online videos with your friends". VentureBeat. 2018-11-08. Retrieved 2019-05-05.
- ^ Rosman, Katherine (2015-02-13). "Love in the Time of Binge-Watching". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
- ^ a b Staff, Fast Company (2015-02-09). "The World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2015 in Video". Fast Company. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
- ^ Ravenscraft, Eric (1 August 2015). "Rabbit Lets You Watch Netflix, YouTube, Browse the Web with Friends". Lifehacker. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
- ^ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hitting-wall-amanda-richardson/
- ^ https://twitter.com/LetsRabbit/status/1156596913547800576