Hike messenger, India’s homegrown competitor to Whatspp, has touched an important milestone – it claims to have touched the 100 million users mark. Started in December 2012, Hike has seen a steady growth in its users since its inception, though it saw stiff competition from Whatsapp among India’s user base.
Hike claims to send 40 billion messages a month. Its closest competitor Whatsapp also has 100 million Indian users, and 990 million users globally.
Like WeChat in China, Hike has been expanding its product portfolio, adding features like Sticker Suggestions, and Group Calls. It has also been personalizing its product for an Indian audience with cricket scores, news in English & Hindi and localized keyboards.
Hike becomes the 2nd Indian company to claim the 100 million users milestone. Late last year, Paytm had claimed that its wallet had 100 million users (120 million at last count). Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma sportingly applauded Hike’s efforts.
In 2016, Hike claims to “double down on its platform”. This is expected to broaden Hike’s focus from merely being a chat tool to “simplifying how people interact and consume services and content on mobile”. This seems to be a broad trend among chat services. Whatsapp, which has remained laser-focussed on chat so far, has also announced that it will open up its platform for businesses and services.