One Indian company is starting to wedge its way into an already-crowded messaging-service business with a killer app aimed directly at young Indians: more ways to hide from mom.
Hike Messenger–a free messaging app owned by Bharti Softbank 9984.TO -1.30%, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Japan’s SoftBank—is trying to steal users from WhatsApp, Line and others by flooding the Indian market with commercials that demonstrate how its messaging service gives users more options to keep secrets and block others from keeping tabs on them.
India’s large, extended families are close and teenagers are often expected to link to their parents, cousins, aunts, uncles and even distant relatives through social media.
The Hike app gives Indian users more ways to maintain privacy and hide conversations on their phones–a feature, Bharti Softbank says young Indians need to dodge the prying eyes of parents and other relatives.
One of Hike’s recent television commercials shows a young man setting up a party with his friends through the application. In the commercial his parents are trying to monitor him through his messenger service but his partying updates and the fact that he is online are hidden to them.
“No status update, no last seen,” says the mom in the commercial looking at her phone. “He must be studying, poor thing.”
Kavin Bharti Mittal, the head of products and strategy at Bharti Softbank said the commercial blitz has helped Hike take off this year, jumping to 20 million users in June from 15 million in February. He said the service was adding 250,000 new users a day thanks to the commercials.
Mr. Mittal–son of billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of India’s Bharti Enterprises–said the goal now is to be the top messaging app in India. To become India’s top messaging app it would need to outpace WhatsApp which has 55 million monthly active users in India. Mr. Mittal would not disclose a figure for Hike’s monthly active users.
Mallika Sarna, 21, a recent Delhi University graduate, said Hike “simplified” her life. It allows users hide the “last seen” update that lets people know when they are online. She also likes that Hike gives her the ability to hide her messenger conversations so people that pick up her phone can’t see what she was saying.
“My mom or sometimes even my close friends check my chats and go through my phone,” she said. “Hike’s hidden mode feature is a great help in such situations.”
Japan’s Line Corp. says it is working on a similar feature that allows users to hide chats. A spokesman for WhatsApp wasn’t available to comment.
Hike also targets Indian users by allowing users to chat through text messages for those not on smartphones. Only 10% of the phones used in India are smartphones. Hike also offers stickers of Bollywood film stars.
To fund the growth, Hike hopes to raise more money in the next year, said Mr. Mittal. Hike is not generating any revenue but plans to keep the messaging service free of advertisements and charges, he said.
Hike has no plans to expand outside the country, he said, though it is targeting the millions of Indians that live outside of India.
“The difference between us and the others is that everybody else is solving a global problem,” Mr. Mittal said. “We are made in India for India.”
Hike Messenger–a free messaging app owned by Bharti Softbank 9984.TO -1.30%, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Japan’s SoftBank—is trying to steal users from WhatsApp, Line and others by flooding the Indian market with commercials that demonstrate how its messaging service gives users more options to keep secrets and block others from keeping tabs on them.
India’s large, extended families are close and teenagers are often expected to link to their parents, cousins, aunts, uncles and even distant relatives through social media.
The Hike app gives Indian users more ways to maintain privacy and hide conversations on their phones–a feature, Bharti Softbank says young Indians need to dodge the prying eyes of parents and other relatives.
One of Hike’s recent television commercials shows a young man setting up a party with his friends through the application. In the commercial his parents are trying to monitor him through his messenger service but his partying updates and the fact that he is online are hidden to them.
“No status update, no last seen,” says the mom in the commercial looking at her phone. “He must be studying, poor thing.”
Kavin Bharti Mittal, the head of products and strategy at Bharti Softbank said the commercial blitz has helped Hike take off this year, jumping to 20 million users in June from 15 million in February. He said the service was adding 250,000 new users a day thanks to the commercials.
Mr. Mittal–son of billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of India’s Bharti Enterprises–said the goal now is to be the top messaging app in India. To become India’s top messaging app it would need to outpace WhatsApp which has 55 million monthly active users in India. Mr. Mittal would not disclose a figure for Hike’s monthly active users.
Mallika Sarna, 21, a recent Delhi University graduate, said Hike “simplified” her life. It allows users hide the “last seen” update that lets people know when they are online. She also likes that Hike gives her the ability to hide her messenger conversations so people that pick up her phone can’t see what she was saying.
“My mom or sometimes even my close friends check my chats and go through my phone,” she said. “Hike’s hidden mode feature is a great help in such situations.”
Japan’s Line Corp. says it is working on a similar feature that allows users to hide chats. A spokesman for WhatsApp wasn’t available to comment.
Hike also targets Indian users by allowing users to chat through text messages for those not on smartphones. Only 10% of the phones used in India are smartphones. Hike also offers stickers of Bollywood film stars.
To fund the growth, Hike hopes to raise more money in the next year, said Mr. Mittal. Hike is not generating any revenue but plans to keep the messaging service free of advertisements and charges, he said.
Hike has no plans to expand outside the country, he said, though it is targeting the millions of Indians that live outside of India.
“The difference between us and the others is that everybody else is solving a global problem,” Mr. Mittal said. “We are made in India for India.”
No comments:
Post a Comment