TokBox


TokBox was a PaaS 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.
TokBox was founded by entrepreneurs Serge Faguet and Ron Hose and was backed by Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital, DAG Ventures, and Youniversity Ventures. As of November 2010, TokBox had raised $26 million in series A and B and C funding. Headquartered in the SOMA district in San Francisco, CA. TokBox was acquired by Telefónica Digital, a subsidiary of Telefónica, in October 2012.

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.

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.

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, API Hack Day and Music Hack Day.
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.

History

2007

August–Series A funding from Sequoia Capital
October–Launched www.tokbox.com
November–Launched multi-party chat and partnership with Meebo

2008

April–TokBox Version 2 launched
July–Series B Funding from Bain Capital Ventures and Sequoia Capital
September–Launched the TokBox platform/ API

2009

Added document collaboration tool—Etherpad

2010

January—rolled out its first set of paid features at $9.99 per month.
November–Series C Funding from DAG Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures and Sequoia Capital
November—announced the OpenTok API

2011

February—TokBox announced that as of April 5, 2011, they will be discontinuing the TokBox video chat and video conferencing service to focus solely on their API, OpenTok.

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 CEOs new restructuring plan. None of the original founders are currently with TokBox.