Coub is a video streaming platform available on the web,

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

and Android. It allows users to create and share looped audio-visual collages up to ten seconds long, using existing video clips from

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

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, and other popular video sharing websites, or their own files. Founded in 2012 by brothers Anton and Igor Gladkoborodov, the company started in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. The company announced its plans to open the office in

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in July 2013, subsequently based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. On 1 January 2020, the company's founder Anton Gladkoborodov left the company, and CMTT, the Russian internet publishing house that used to be one of the platform's minority stakeholders, took over the project. Since April 2022, Coub has been operated by a "private tech company headquartered in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

History

Coub was founded in 2012 by Anton and Igor Gladkoborodov and developer Mikhail Tabunov. The name "Coub" comes from Cobb, the protagonist of the film ''

Inception ''Inception'' is a 2010 science fiction action film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced the film with Emma Thomas, his wife. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by infiltr ...

''. In June 2013, Coub raised $1 million in additional funding from

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

firms Brothers Ventures and Phenomen Ventures, and announced plans to open a U.S. office. The iOS app was launched in December 2013 and included the ability to record and upload a "coub" directly from an iPhone camera, as well as filters similar to those on

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

. As of April 2014, over 400,000 videos, or "coubs" have been created. In July 2014 Coub raised $2.5 million from Vaizra Investments, a fund founded by Lev Leviev and Vyacheslav Mirilashvili, the founders of

VK.com VK (short for its original name ''VKontakte''; russian: ВКонтакте, meaning ''InContact'') is a Russian online social media and social networking service based in Saint Petersburg. VK is available in multiple languages but it is predomin ...

, Russia's major Facebook competitor. In January 2020, the company co-founder Anton Gladkoborodov left, and the sole ownership and operational control over Coub.com was turned over to a Russian publishing house “Comitet” that manages media portals , , and . It was announced on 15 March 2022, that as of 1 April 2022, Coub would cease operation. Despite the initial announcement, the banner with the message was subsequently removed and the website remains operational past 1 April. On 5 April a new banner appeared saying "Coub will keep living and evolving with the new team. Stay tuned". On 18 April, Coub’s newly launched official

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announced that the company's new owners are a "private tech company headquartered in

Function

Using Coub's web-based editor, users can extract a snippet up to 10 seconds long from a video already hosted on popular video hosting websites, such as

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle con ...

, and

, or one that they've uploaded, and add a full-length audio track to play along with the clip. The video can be set to reverse, looped, or mixed with random reactions. Several recognized animators and contemporary artists, such as Sholim and

Simon Stålenhag Simon Stålenhag (born 20 January 1984) is a Sweden, Swedish artist, musician, and designer specialising in Retrofuturism, retro-futuristic digital images focused on nostalgic Swedish countryside alternate history environments. The settings of h ...

, had pioneered "coubs" as a new media format. "Coubs" can be shared on

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

and embedded via embed.ly. As of November 2018, Coub had reached over 1 billion views per month.

References

{{Reflist

External links

* Official websit
coub.com
English-language websites Video hosting Internet properties established in 2012 Russian entertainment websites