Boxee Cloudee Video Sharing Service Evaporates After Samsung Deal

Samsung-acquired Boxee will shut down its Cloudee video sharing service, the company has confirmed to users, giving them until the end of the month to download any content remaining. Cloudee, which launched publicly in late 2012, was Boxee's take on semi-private video sharing; however, GigaOm reports, Boxee now says the company can't see a place for Cloudee to fit into its new Samsung roadmap.

"Cloudee has a very special place in our hearts, it's a service we built for our families. It was the way we shared meaningful experiences and funny moments" Boxee wrote in an email to users. "Unfortunately, as the team has been working diligently on exciting new products within Samsung, we came to the decision that Cloudee will not have a place in the new organization and we will have to shut it down."

Samsung confirmed back in July that it had bought Boxee, with the Korean company saying the acquisition would be used to "continue to improve the overall user experience across our connected devices." However, while initial rumors indicated Boxee's Cloud DVR service was the primary focus of Samsung's attentions, that interest wasn't enough to actually save it. Boxee shut down the Cloud DVR feature shortly after the Samsung deal was confirmed.

The loss of Cloudee may not be a significant one. After the unexpected launch last year – a video sharing service intended for small group accessibility was at odds with Boxee's core home entertainment focus at the time – little was heard about the product.

Meanwhile, user feedback has been mediocre at best. Would-be users were turned off by the requirement to use their Facebook credentials to log in, especially given Facebook itself has private video sharing options.

Those who actually used Cloudee have until the end of September to download any remaining videos on the service that they want to keep copies of. After that, Boxee will be deleting everything from the cloud.