Developer of the kiwiirc.com IRC client here (Unaffiliated with teamrelaychat.nl).
While I agree that there are far better protocols than IRC for todays modern world, IRC still has a long way to go and is currently being extended to push it further in that direction. It still has millions of active users today so it's clear it has done something right.
Inline media, file uploading/sharing, mobile messaging, persistence, log searching, APIs, etc, etc can all be achieved with IRC and is actively being developed with the kiwiirc.com client that this startup is using giving it a great start.
Inline media, file uploading/sharing, mobile messaging, persistence, log searching, APIs, etc, etc can all be achieved with IRC and is actively being developed with the kiwiirc.com client that this startup is using giving it a great start.