Qik is being shuttered on April 30, 2014. Qik was undoubtedly one of my favorite video sharing sites. None of its competitors made is as easy to take a video and upload it from your phone. Qik encouraged vidcasting. Bamuser and ustream have never had the same feel for me.
Crunchbase shows Qik’s competitors as Kyte, Flixwagon, Livecast, Next2Friends, Bambuser, Ustream, Justin.TV, and Streamup.
So, what happened to Qik? Skype bought them in 2011. We saw Qik Premium and Qik Desktop with great promise. There was growth. And then silence. The last Twitter post was January 2012. In May of 2011, Microsoft bought Skype. Qik had ben borg’d.
From the Qik service retiring FAQ:
Why are you retiring Qik?
We are retiring Qik as the Qik video messaging technology has now been incorporated into Skype. Users can now enjoy a great experience on Skype with features such as audio and video calling, instant messaging and video messaging with contacts in their Skype and Microsoft networks.[Source, Qik.com, Qik service retiring in April 2014 – IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ]