In January 2021 when Kavin Mittal tweeted about shutting down the messenger app, I wonder what happened to them all of a sudden.
The app had so many unique features that no other messaging app was offering in the Indian marketplace. Hike offline, free SMS, hidden chat mode, two-way chat theme, Hike wallet, and whatnot.
And when I decided to research about it, here's what I found;
MORE FEATURES ≠ ANY STARTUP'S OR MESSAGING APP'S SUCCESS
But it wasn't just its too many features that clouded its USP, the role of Jio storm and Whatsapp's market dominance has the equal contribution in drowning India's messenger sail.
Even though the company had adequate cash flow, it failed to beat its competitor in its home ground.
Some Other Reasons that led to Hike's Failure that I Discovered while Researching
- Hiring Mistakes
- Lack of USP
- Too Fast Evolution
- Lack of User Retention
- Whatsapp’s Market Dominance
It's not possible to explain all of the points here and if anyone is interested to read the entire case study, the link is given below.
Why Hike Messenger Failed? A Mammoth Case Study of India's Messaging App
I have no intention to spam the subreddit and I shared it just for educational purposes. If anyone feels that it's against the guidelines, let me know.
Also, I read the subreddit's rules and didn't find any guideline to not use any link for relevant studies and that's why sharing here.
There was a time when I used to use Hike messenger more than I used WhatsApp. It had those chats which I routinely used to keep a backup of, because it had very precious conversations of the initial days of my relationship with my girlfriend(6 years ago). I still have those backup files.
Can any developer or a tech geek help me restore those chats somehow? You can make use of technical terms as I myself am a web developer.
Thanks!
I've been using hike messenger since long and we know it was not much successful, people stopped using it, so I also wasn't using it for months but I never uninstalled it.
Yesterday when I opened it, it asked me to update the app, and it took me to playstore page but there was no update button. It was a complete separate "hike sticker" app and had to be downloaded. But I already had hike installed. I search manually for "hike messenger" but didn't find anything. I looked on the internet and found that there are now to separate apps for chat and news.
I don't want to lose my old messages, should I uninstall the existing app and install new one.
TLDR: What was happening in hike app for past months and will I lose my messages?
Found out yesterday from a friend, that Hike Messenger has a new feature 'Hike Run' in its app. And that I'm leading the scoreboard with 32k+ steps, Great!!! Ohh... wait. but I never signed up for anything remotely similar to this. Actually, I didn't know about its existence, before my friend started asking me what I’ve been doing in the office walking around all the time.
I'm not sure how they collected this data, so I tweeted, DM'd, emailed them. And got the response that it was due to 'some issue' at their end, and now they've enabled the feature for me and I can see it on Hike's home screen. What??? When did I ask you to enable it? You collect and share my data without my consent, and upon asking why and how this happened you brush everything under by calling it and blame it on 'some issue'.
I kept asking them when did they ask for the permissions about using my fitness related info? Requested to purge that data, but received no response after that.
Well, Hike just lost a long-time user. Moving over to Signal now. Asking my friends as well!
Update 04/Apr/2017: Received a DM yesterday. >"First of all we are extremely sorry for your experience :( As per your request, we have purged all your data related to hike run. You can check with your hike friends too. You have been an old hike user and we hope continue having your support for hike in the future too. Love, team hike!"
Nah, I'll pass!
Delhi-NCR is no less than Bangalore, and should be credited more for contributing towards India's start-up story. Given there are top engineering colleges including IIT D, DTU, NSIT contributing to NCRs tech ecosystem, Delhi is going to write many more success stories.
(If any one is)
Look how airtel has already used their deceptive practices by promoting hike messenger http://www.iamwire.com/2013/09/hike-deals-airtel-offers-data-charges-months-updates-android-app/19789.
For all those people who do not know hike is literally the company of airtel. Look at the news here: http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/sunil-bharti-mittal-hike-softbank-corporation/1/209720.html
Oh and all those who are saying 0rated app doesn't violate net neutrality can they answer this?
Is there anybody here feeling as let-down as me because Hike is never updated in Windows Phone as it is in Android or iOS? Their website says that Hike is in version 4 now, while we Windows Phone users have never crossed 3.5.x! I remember, when this 3.5.x was released to us, it was also way later than in other platforms! Seriously! I moved to Hike along with so many friends, and I always feel that they have super features such as hike-direct, etc. which we don't have. I remember an announcement for testing Hike beta on Windows Phone sometime end of last year, and I even had send a mail to the mail id that was in the announcement agreeing to be a tester, but never got a response, not was the link to the site accessible (this was also announced on Reddit). Hike is good, but not for Windows Phone, I guess :-(
Forgive my lack of the comma between Signal and Google Allo. Me no proofread very good.
Recently, I got an invite to use Hike, so I Googled it. I find it somewhat amusing that Airtel, which has been on the forefront of datacaps and FUD, killing net neutrality and Over-the-top (OTT) messaging applications; actually own an OTT messaging app.
> Over-the-top (OTT) messaging applications might be cannibalising SMS traffic but they are fuelling data growth which is creating a new revenue source for telecom companies, says Hike messenger founder and CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal. "If there are no OTT players, why would people buy data," he said.
That explains a lot.
>I think one of the biggest difference is that telecom and SMS is fully regulated whereas OTT messaging in terms of content of messages is not regulated thats something we should talk more than charging OTTs for a fee," Kavin said. >Kavin said regulations on OTT players currently are very light thats why they are able to grow fast and it should continue like that.
What about your own OTT app? Will you subject it to the same fees and regulations? When all competing apps are bowing to your extortion, I bet you will be releasing special Hike data packs.
>"If a government body comes to us and talks to us and say we need data, we don't store messages but whatever we have we are ready to disclose and thats the case with everybody else...thats something given globally," he added.
That makes me confident in using Hike. Downloading right now.
>
Delhi-NCR is no less than Bangalore, and should be credited more for contributing towards India's start-up story. Given there are top engineering colleges including IIT D, DTU, NSIT contributing to NCRs tech ecosystem, Delhi is going to write many more success stories.
