TokBox

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Serge Faguet
Ron Hose

FateAcquired; brand retiredHeadquartersSan Francisco, California, California

Key people

Scott Lomond, CEO
Badri Rajaseker, CTO
Melih Onvural, Director of Product Management
Michael Kelleher, Director of Business Analytics
Ian Small, Chairman of the Board

OwnerTelefónica Digital a subsidiary of TelefónicaWebsitewww.tokbox.com

TokBox was a PaaS (Platform as a Service) company that provided hosted infrastructure, APIs and tools required to deliver enterprise-grade WebRTC capabilities. It did so primarily through its proprietary OpenTok video platform for commercial application.^[1]

TokBox was founded by Serge Faguet and Ron Hose. Headquartered in the SOMA (South of Market) district in San Francisco, CA. TokBox was acquired by Telefónica Digital, a subsidiary of Telefónica, in October 2012.^[2]

Developer resources

Server SDKs

Server SDKs: OpenTok's server SDKs wrap the OpenTok REST API, and let developers securely generate tokens for their OpenTok applications. Officially supported libraries include: Java and PHP. Community supported and created libraries include: Python, Ruby On Rails, .NET, Node.js, Perl, Golang.^[3]

Client libraries

Client Libraries: OpenTok's WebRTC client libraries enable video communications on a client platform. Officially supported libraries include: JavaScript, iOS and Android. Community supported and created libraries include: PhoneGap and Titanium.^[4]

Developer outreach

TokBox has a long history of active engagement with the developer community. It has sponsored numerous hackathons since 2010 such as TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon,^[5] API Hack Day^[6] and Music Hack Day.^[7]

PennApps, one of the largest of such events, takes place on University of Pennsylvania campus every semester. Over a thousand students from around the world competed in the September 2013 edition of PennApps. Four sophomore students from Carnegie Mellon University with no prior hackathon experience built Classity to showcase real-time lectures on the web and won the “Best Use of TokBox API” award.^[8]

History

2007

August: Series A funding from Sequoia Capital^[9]
October: Launched www.tokbox.com^[10]
November: Launched multi-party chat and partnership with Meebo^{[citation needed]}

2008

April: TokBox Version 2 launched^{[citation needed]}
July: Series B funding from Bain Capital Ventures and Sequoia Capital^[11]
September: Launched the TokBox platform/ API ^{[citation needed]}

2009

Added document collaboration tool—Etherpad (now owned by Google)^{[citation needed]}

2010

January: Rolled out its first set of paid features at $9.99 per month.^{[citation needed]}
November: Series C Funding from DAG Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures and Sequoia Capital^[12]
November: Announced the OpenTok API^{[citation needed]}

2011

February: TokBox announced that as of April 5, 2011, they would be discontinuing the TokBox video chat and video conferencing service to focus solely on their API, OpenTok.^[13]

Controversy

TokBox was the subject of controversy when 50% of their engineering staff was fired in July 2009. This happened around the time TokBox changed CEOs. The VP of Marketing is stated as saying the firings were part of the CEO's new restructuring plan. None of the original founders are currently with TokBox.^[14]

References

^ Cohen, A.D. (2014). Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language. Longman applied linguistics. Taylor & Francis. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-317-86117-1.
^ Lunden, Ingrid (25 October 2012). "Telefonica Digital Buys Video Chat Platform TokBox, An Airtime For The Rest Of Us".
^ "OpenTok Server SDKs". Archived from the original on 2013-12-16. Retrieved 2013-12-16.
^ "OpenTok Client SDKs". Archived from the original on 2013-12-16. Retrieved 2013-12-16.
^ Lardinois, Frederic (27 April 2013). "Disrupt NY 2013 Hackathon Team Wants To Build A WebRTC-Based Pandora For Exercise".
^ "API Hack Day Chicago - TokBox Blog". 16 May 2011. Archived from the original on 16 December 2013. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
^ "Main page- Music Hack Day SF 2013". Archived from the original on 2013-12-16. Retrieved 2022-07-08.
^ "PennApps XV". Archived from the original on 2013-10-15. Retrieved 2013-12-16.
^ "TokBox Raises $10 Million - PE Hub". PE Hub. 2008-08-07. Retrieved 2017-10-27.
^ "TokBox". 2007-07-15. Archived from the original on 28 October 2007. Retrieved 2017-10-27.
^ Kincaid, Jason. "Video Chat Service TokBox Raises $10 Million From Bain". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-10-27.
^ "TokBox raises $12M to jam Skype into your web browser | VentureBeat". venturebeat.com. 15 November 2010. Retrieved 2017-10-27.
^ "Breaking up is hard to do - TokBox Blog". 8 February 2011. Archived from the original on 13 February 2011. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
^ Kincaid, Jason (9 July 2009). "TokBox Fires 50% Of Engineering Team, All Founders Gone". TechCrunch.