Hardeep Singh
Hike is a cross-platform messenger programme similar to WhatsApp, but it also allows users to connect by SMS, which is useful for those who do not have access to mobile Internet or data while on the road, as well as for chatting with friends who do not have the Hike app from within it.
For the first time in five years, Hike, a one-time messaging network and super app, has received funding. This comes eight months after the firm chose to stop offering its primary messaging service in order to focus on games. The news of its shutting down came early this year in January due to the game players, more vital and dynamic like WhatsApp, Instagram etc. Hike has raised a total of $261 million in capital throughout the years, including $175 million in 2016 from Foxconn and Tencent, valuing the company at US$1.4 billion. However, popularity stalled as WhatsApp retained its market dominance in India. As of December 2019, Hike had 2 million monthly active users. On the other hand, Signal, a non-profit organisation, has added over 30 million installations in the last month alone.
Hike’s eight-year-old founder, Kavin Bharti Mittal, tweeted on January 6 that the app was “starting the new year with a bang” by enhancing its social media platform and expanding its variety of services to include games. The fact that the company was abandoning StickerChat, formerly Hike Messenger, Mittal’s signature product for years, was concealed in that announcement. Four days later, Mittal announced, “India would not have its own messenger.”
Tinder co-founders Justin Mateen and Sean Rad, SoftBank Vision Fund CEO Rajeev Misra, Tribe Capital’s Arjun Sethi, Zeta’s Bhavin Turakhia, Cred’s Kunal Shah, Flipkart’s Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, and South Park Commons’ Aditya Agarwal were among those who took part in this round.
The financial details of the investment round were not disclosed by the company.
Humans have a deep desire for social interaction that is strong enough to support a mission. Much more is now feasible as a result of technical developments than was even imaginable just a few years ago. Hike says the timing could not be more ideal. People should be happy as a result of social products. Instead of the other way around, they should be created with humans in mind. They should be engaging while highlighting the diversity of partnerships. They should provide people the freedom to be themselves and to be free of the limitations that they face in the real world. Hike is helping us to forge a new social future.
Since its inception in 2012, the company has been recognised as one of the country’s fastest-growing businesses. In the startup sector, a unicorn is a company with a valuation of $1 billion or more. Hike was valued at $1.4 billion at the time of its most recent $175 million investment in 2016, despite failing to produce income from operations. HikeLand has rebranded as Vibe and will continue to offer a great social networking experience. Rush, on the other hand, is a casual gaming platform with a variety of minigames.
According to Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder and CEO of Hike, great technological progress has set the path for massive upheaval in social and gaming in recent years. There isn’t much of a distinction between these two groups. Gaming has grown into a new means for people in the virtual world to socialise and engage, and it has become fundamentally social. Hike intends to use the funds to grow its product strategy and hire across the board. The organisation currently has 25 job opportunities. It has 160 employees in India, spread across 50 cities. The cash will be used to support Rush, the company’s recently established online game vertical, as well as research and development.
The company was seeking for new ways to promote its messaging app and decided to create a super app with capabilities like a digital wallet, ticket ticketing, e-commerce, and more. However, it did not pay off.
According to the firm, the communications software will be retired in January 2021. Instead, the company will concentrate on HikeLand, a virtual hangout zone set to launch in June 2020. In-app purchases will benefit Hikeland.
During the first time in five years, Bharti, Kavin Mittal’s social messaging service, Hike, has secured financing to experiment with bitcoin and gaming. Hike Messenger’s most recent funding round occurred in 2016, when the company raised $175 million, raising its total worth to $1.4 billion. Despite its difficulties in generating revenue from operations, Mittal’s company is known as the fastest-growing unicorn. Hike Messenger has gotten money for the first time in five years, only eight months after abandoning its chat feature to focus on the gaming industry.
Hike has been striving to monetize its chat service for some time, even creating a super app. The super software was expected to have a digital wallet, ticket booking, and e-commerce, among other features. On the other hand, the company’s goal was not met. The company decided to stop developing the chat app in January 2021 and focus on HikeLand instead.
The telecommunications industry has expanded at a dizzying speed. From letters to landlines to pagers to cell phones, we’ve gone a long way. Messaging software has been one of the most popular ways of communication in recent years, as it makes communication not only simple but also pleasant.
You’re almost definitely already using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram to communicate with customers. But, as a marketer, have you given Messenger, Facebook’s standalone chat service, top priority?
You’re already behind if you don’t. Consumers utilised email, AIM, and MySpace to communicate ten years ago. It was Facebook and Twitter five years ago. However, today’s activity has shifted to chat apps. Over 3 billion people use messaging apps to contact friends and businesses on a regular basis, and messaging is the most prevalent channel for customer support in the US.
As a result, messenger marketing has skyrocketed in popularity. It is the art and science of using Facebook Messenger to reach out to clients on a large scale, similar to how marketers used to rely on email marketing and newsletters. In Messenger marketing, it is usual to employ automated tools or chatbot builders to send push notifications and targeted discussions to Messenger’s over 1 billion users. Messenger will quickly become one of your most valuable marketing tools. Consumers are simply ignoring the onslaught of email. Messenger marketing can attain open rates of more than 80%, making it significantly more effective than email marketing.
