Koinup was an image and

video hosting service An online video platform (OVP), provided by a video hosting service, enables users to upload, convert, store and play back video content on the Internet, often via a structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users will generally u ...

web portal A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displayi ...

and

online community An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, online communities may fe ...

for

virtual world A virtual world (also called a virtual space) is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities ...

users. It was used both as a photo and video repository platform and as a tool to share virtual world screenshots, photographs and machinima. , it claimed to host more than 100,000 items uploaded by its members and reaches about 100,000 visitors monthly. Centered on the concept of “Share your Virtual Life", Koinup offered a social networking platform for all virtual world inhabitants.

History

Koinup was developed by Koinup Srl, a

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo ...

, Italy-based company founded in March 2007. The service was launched in September 2007, preceded by a four-month beta period. Initially, the two founders Pierluigi Casolari and Edoardo Turelli served respectively as

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

and chief technical officer. Along with competitors such as

gamerDNA gamerDNA Inc. was a social media company for video game players founded on September 21, 2006. The company was part of Live Gamer ( Emergent Payments). Members may tag themselves with information on games they have played, server names and guild ...

, Koinup followed a trend in the social network scenery at that time by building a social network for online games. According to the blog of the former company, on January 8th, 2013, Koinup was acquired by ExitReality.

Features

Koinup was a free service, allowing members to upload up to 1.5

gigabytes The gigabyte () is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix '' giga'' means 109 in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one gigabyte is one billion bytes. The unit symbol for the gigabyte is GB. This definit ...

of photo and video content. As of 2008, Koinup did not offer a paid premium plan. Uploaders could add tags to their entries and create photo or video galleries. Uploaded content could be shared either by embedding

web widget A web widget is a web page or web application that is embedded as an element of a host web page but which is substantially independent of the host page, having limited or no interaction with the host. A web widget commonly provides users of the ...

s on websites, or by using a set of

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 ...

sharing tools. Koinup also featured tools aimed at creating a bridge between virtual worlds and the website. These tools allowed users to interact with their Koinup account while they are in virtual worlds. Particularly, members could send postcards directly from the clients to their Koinup galleries without leaving the virtual worlds. One of the most popular features on the website was the Koinup Places Section. Koinup Places allowed users to

geotag Geotagging, or GeoTagging, is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as a geotagged photograph or video, websites, SMS messages, QR Codes or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata. This data u ...

virtual world locations and upload them on Koinup. This feature created a user-generated directory of the best places hosted in virtual worlds. According to a publication in 2008, more than 1,000 virtual places have already been suggested by the Koinup community. On April 22, 2010, Koinup expanded their service by launching a paid application on the Nokia Store featuring wallpapers of virtual world related image content. With the launch of ''Metaverse Wallpapers'' on March 11, 2011 on Apple's

App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the c ...

, a similar application became available for

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 include ...

devices.

Interoperability

One of the main challenges faced by Koinup was the issue of

interoperability Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader defi ...

between virtual worlds. In 2007, the virtual world scene was made up of numerous standalone

walled garden A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate ...

s that did not communicate with each other. Even as of this writing in 2023, the virtual world scene is made up of numerous standalone walled gardens that only minimally communicate with each other. Only since 2022 were there standardized tools for moving and sharing the

avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appeara ...

identity from one world to another or ways to interact with multiple virtual worlds from a single dashboard. In response to this problem, one of Koinup's goals was to allow users to manage both the content and the friends they have in various virtual worlds with a single account.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.koinup.com/
Company Information

Company Blog

ExitReality
(Buyer) *
Phoenix Technologies
(Parent Company of ExitReality) **
Martin Equity Partners
(Current owner of Phoenix Technologies and all previous entries) Italian companies established in 2007 Internet properties established in 2007 Italian social networking websites Virtual world communities Companies based in Brescia