accoona
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Accoona was a B2B search engine headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, with an office in Shanghai. Launched in 2004, it claimed to use artificial intelligence to understand the meaning behind searches, offering traditional web search plus business-profile search and a 'SuperTarget' feature for super-targeted results. Through a 20-year exclusive partnership with China Daily, it aimed to serve 10 million daily searches from Chinese users, and it also provided search technology to Chinese portals Sina and Sohu.
02 / accoona FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Accoona failed because it could not compete in the search market against giants like Google and Yahoo, and it ran into trouble when its IPO plans fell through.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Launch
Accoona launches its AI-powered B2B search engine, backed by China Daily under a 20-year exclusive partnership; former US President Bill Clinton is signed as a spokesperson in December 2004, and former Compaq CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer chairs the board.
- Chess publicity event
On June 23, 2005, at ABC's Times Square Studios, the AI Accoona Toolbar, driven by a Fritz 9 prototype, plays chess grandmaster Rustam Kasimdzhanov.
- Shutdown and acquisition
After IPO problems, Accoona shuts down on October 5, 2008, telling users that 'due to an overwhelmingly competitive search market' Accoona.com and Accoona.cn would no longer be active. On October 30, 2008, its domains and search facilities are acquired by Denmark-based B2B search engine Masterseek.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
On October 5, 2008, Accoona shut down its search engine, citing an 'overwhelmingly competitive search market.'
- 02
On October 30, 2008, Accoona's domains and search facilities were acquired by Masterseek, a Denmark-based B2B search engine.