Messaging app ‘Hike’ has got $7 million from Bharti SoftBank, a joint venture between Bharti and SoftBank (BSB). Hike is a free instant messaging application that competes with WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber, Kik, Line, Facebook Messenger among others.
The app mangaed to gather huge number of users in a short span of time. ‘Huge’ earned five million users in just four months time since its launch in December last year.
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The app is available globally on iOS, Android, WP and S40 and Windows Phone 8 devices and in BlackBerry beta. BSB’s messaging service allows users to communicate over SMS as well as data networks.
About 60% users of Hike are reportedly based in India while the rest users are from the Middle East and Europe. Around 20% of its overall messaging traffic comes from its Hike2sms feature. The app also features status update with moods, circle of friends, mute notifications, among others. (New features like Status Updates & Moods feature has not been rolled out to Hike’s Windows Phone 7 app and Symbian app.)
Hike’s relation with Bharti Enterprises and Japanese Telecommunication firm SoftBank puts it in a distinctive position to make contracts with telcos. Its Hike2SMS is already quite distinguished feature from other messaging apps, where it offers 100 free SMSes every month to each users.