Rabb.it

Rabbit, also known as Rabb.it, was a video streaming website and mobile application. Launched in 2014, and based in California, United States, the service enabled multiple people to remotely browse and watch the same content in real-time.[1]

Rabbit
Type of site
Content-sharing
URLwww.rabb.it
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
Launched2013
Current statusDefunct as of July 31, 2019

A host could create a room, invite others to it (or, alternatively, set it to public so the room appeared on the site's homepage for anyone to join), and share content using a virtual computer called a "Rabbitcast," or using the Google Chrome extension "Share on Rabbit." Whatever content the host opened was displayed to the other users in the room[1] along with audio and video. Rabbit offered text and video chat alongside this functionality.[2]

Unlike other popular streaming websites such as YouTube and Netflix, Rabbit did not host the content viewed on it. Instead, Rabbit streamed a virtual computer (Rabbitcast) with a browser, which could then be used to navigate to other websites and content. A Rabbitcast was a Rabbit-hosted, shared Firefox browser that could be viewed and controlled by anyone within the room.[3][4] The built-in web browser had an ad-blocker pre-installed.[5]

History

After a beta release in 2013[6][7] which offered limited Mac-only functionality, the company redesigned Rabbit as a web app in the summer of 2014. The service took off, adding 400,000 users by the end of the year.[3] With around 3.6 million monthly active users,[8] Rabbit users viewed 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 had 30 employees worldwide as of May 2019.[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 lay off staff and begin shutting Rabbit down immediately.[8] Despite announcements that all staff members had been let go, the site remained semi-functional until July 31, 2019 when the servers were shut down.[9]

On July 31, 2019, it was announced that its remaining assets—intellectual property, software stack, and several patents—had been acquired by fellow streaming service Kast.[9]

References
  1. "Rabbit lets you remotely watch online videos with your friends". VentureBeat. 2018-11-08. Retrieved 2019-05-05.
  2. Rosman, Katherine (2015-02-13). "Love in the Time of Binge-Watching". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  3. Staff, Fast Company (2015-02-09). "The World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2015 in Video". Fast Company. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  4. "How to deal with a long-distance relationship? Try this tech". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  5. Ravenscraft, Eric (1 August 2015). "Rabbit Lets You Watch Netflix, YouTube, Browse the Web with Friends". Lifehacker. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  6. Jacobs, Harrison. "A Startup Named 'Rabbit' Thinks That It Solved A Major Problem With Video-Chatting". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  7. "Xconomy: Video Chatting and Watching Gets a Social Makeover from Rabbit". Xconomy. 2014-08-25. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  8. Richardson, Amanda. "Hitting The Wall". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2019-12-24.
  9. "Kast acquires remnants of group-watch company Rabbit". VentureBeat. 2019-07-31. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
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