Currently in development  ·  Season 1  ·  2026  ·  theping.show

THE PING

The Oral History of Chat

From the first chatroom in 1973 to the AI systems reshaping communication today — told by the founders who built the digital nervous system of the modern world.

Get Involved See the Episodes
PLATO 1973IRC 1988ICQ 1996AIM 1997MSN 1999BBM 2005WhatsApp 2009LINE 2011Slack 2013Discord 2015Bloomberg IB 2002Reuters Messenger 2002ICE Chat 2002Symphony 2015ChatGPT 2022 PLATO 1973IRC 1988ICQ 1996AIM 1997MSN 1999BBM 2005WhatsApp 2009LINE 2011Slack 2013Discord 2015Bloomberg IB 2002Reuters Messenger 2002ICE Chat 2002Symphony 2015ChatGPT 2022

The Core Thesis

Chat is the only medium in history that compressed the emotional intimacy of a handwritten letter, the speed of a phone call, and the scale of a broadcast — simultaneously. Every other medium had to trade one off against another. Chat didn't. And that is why it colonised everything.

What is The Ping

A Founder-Led Oral History

The people who built chat — from PLATO in 1973 to AI today — tell their stories in their own words. Origin stories, accidents, rivalries, regrets. Never-before-heard history.

A Financial Markets Story

Trillions of dollars move through chat every day. Bloomberg IB. Symphony. The compliance crisis. The LIBOR scandal uncovered via chat logs. This is the angle no one else has.

A Global Story

LINE was born from an earthquake. KakaoTalk became an entire country's operating system. Viber bridged Eastern Europe and Asia. This is not a Western-centric history.

An Honest Story

The 2011 London riots organised via BBM. LIBOR rigging in Bloomberg IB chat. Banks fined $1.8B for WhatsApp. Addiction by design. The dark side is not avoided.

A Political Story

When the Trump administration used Signal to discuss military strikes — and accidentally added a journalist — chat became a constitutional crisis. The app built for privacy became the world's most scrutinised conversation.

A Story of Exile and Power

Pavel Durov built Telegram after fleeing Russia. France arrested him in 2024. Governments from Belarus to Iran have tried to ban it. The most politically consequential messaging app alive — built by a man who refuses to bend to any state.

The Arc

1973–1995

The Origins

PLATO · CB Simulator · IRC

Eps 1–3
1996–2005

The IM Revolution

ICQ · AIM · MSN · Yahoo

Eps 4–6
2003–2015

Mobile, Voice & Security

Skype · BBM · QQ · LINE · KakaoTalk · Viber

Eps 7–9B
2009–Now

The Modern Giants

WhatsApp · WeChat · Messenger · Telegram · Snapchat · Teams · Discord · Signal

Eps 10–14
1990s–Now

The Market Backbone

Bloomberg IB · Reuters Messenger · ICE Chat · Symphony

Eps 15–18
2022–Future

The AI Frontier

ChatGPT · Claude · Agents · What We Got Wrong

Eps 19–20

Guests

David Gurlé

Symphony · Skype · Reuters

Built the Goldman-backed Bloomberg challenger. Previously Skype and Thomson Reuters messaging. Bridges every arc of the series.

Gary Klassen

BlackBerry Messenger

Invented the read receipt. Built the secure mobile messenger that traders adopted before compliance killed it.

Yair Goldfinger

ICQ · Mirabilis

Co-founded ICQ — the first viral IM. The 'uh-oh' generation. Sold to AOL for $407M in 1998.

Khaled Mardam-Bey

mIRC · IRC

Created the mIRC client — the interface that defined early internet culture for a generation. London-based.

Akira Morikawa

LINE · NHN Japan

LINE was built in the hours after Japan's 2011 earthquake when mobile networks collapsed. One of the most dramatic founding stories in tech.

Talmon Marco

Viber

Israeli founder, ICQ alumni. Built Viber into the dominant platform across Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

John Waanders

Bloomberg Terminal

The architect behind Bloomberg IB — the $32,000 chatroom that moves trillions. The most exclusive social network on earth.

Jarkko Oikarinen

IRC

Created IRC in 1988. Defined channels, communities, and the open internet's social layer. Later worked at Google.

+ many more

WhatsApp · Slack · Discord · AI

Jan Koum, Stewart Butterfield, Jason Citron, Sam Altman and others — in conversation or active outreach.

Format

◎

Podcast First

45–60 min founder interviews. BBC-grade narrative structure. Cinematic sound design.

▶

Documentary Second

Every interview captured on video. Designed from day one for adaptation.

◈

Archive Forever

A permanent historical record. Computer History Museum partnership in development.

✦

20 Episodes

Plus 7 bonus episodes. Spanning 1973 to today. The complete arc.

The Host

Matthew Cheung

Matthew Cheung

Fintech founder & podcast host

LinkedIn Email

The host is not just a narrator.
He is a protagonist.

Matthew Cheung is CEO of ipushpull — a fintech company building real-time communication and data infrastructure for capital markets. His company solves the compliance problems that the chat platforms in this series created.

He sits at the precise intersection of technology, markets, and communication that makes this series possible — and brings founder-to-founder empathy to every conversation.

Fintech founder & podcast host — real-time comms & data for capital markets

Founder, Work in Fintech — inspiring and guiding young people into fintech

Co-Founder, Newsquawk — real-time audio news service for traders

Podcast host — Interviews with Leaders in Fintech & Web3 (15,000+ listeners)
▶ Spotify ▶ Apple ▶ YouTube

Speaker and guest lecturer, Oxford, Warwick, UEL, City University

The Influence List 2026 — The Financial Technologist

15,000+ LinkedIn network across fintech and capital markets  → Connect

Appear on the Show

YOUR STORY BELONGS IN THIS SERIES.

We are actively seeking founders, builders, and key figures in the history of chat — consumer, enterprise, and financial markets. If you created something that changed how people communicate, we want to hear from you.

Every guest receives a full guest pack before committing to anything. No obligation. No surprises.

Request the Guest Pack →

matt@theping.show  ·  We respond within 48 hours

How it works

1

Request the guest pack
Email matt@theping.show — we send you the full information pack and release form.

2

Brief call
15–20 minutes to discuss the project, your episode, and answer any questions.

3

The interview
45–90 minutes. Recorded in audio and video. You receive a topic guide in advance. You control what is included.

4

Preview before publication
You see your segment before it goes live and can request factual corrections.

5

Permanent archive
Master recordings donated to the Computer History Museum. Your story preserved for future generations.

THE ORAL HISTORY OF CHAT  ·  THEPING.SHOW  ·  © 2026 MATTHEW CHEUNG