Samsung has announced plans to shut down its ChatOn messenger app for good.
The South Korean firm previously denied rumours that ChatOn was soon to be binned - speculation that we now know to be true.
“Under changes in the services operation policy, ChatOn will be closed as of 9am on Feb 1, 2015,” said Samsung, as reported by YonhapNews.
“The move came in line with efforts to meet the changing demands in the market and provide differentiated services to users, focusing on other areas such as health and mobile commerce.”
Samsung is likely killing off the app to better focus business efforts elsewhere in the company, especially considering the underwhelming public response to ChatOn.
Despite bagging upwards of 100 million users, a survey revealed that the average monthly usage time for the app was a paltry six seconds, as pointed out by The Verge.
It’s also worth noting that Samsung pre-loaded ChatOn onto its handsets, which undoubtedly skewed user figures upwards.
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ChatOn launched back in October 2011, and was made available across 200 countries on a raft of platforms – Android, iOS, BlackBerry, and Windows included.
Unfortunately, it found difficulty gaining a solid market share against stiff competition from rival chat services like WhatsApp, iMessage, Google Hangouts, and Facebook Messenger.
While Febuary 1 is the given closure date, Samsung has revealed that the service will remain online for a little while longer in the US.
It has been assured however, that ChatOn will shut down across the Atlantic in Q1 next year, which gives it a potential lifespan of two months after global closure.
