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.
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.
