Hike crosses 15M users, 80% of them under 25

Hike has some unique features

Hike messenger, the free messaging app from Bharti SoftBank, has crossed the 15 Million user milestone, up from 5 million nine months ago. hike is unique as it allows users to get in touch with even those who are offline, through SMS.

Founder Kavin Bharti Mittal said the app was seeing great traction amongst the youth and those under 25 made up over 80% of our user base. “Despite the proliferation of instant messaging apps in India, hike is growing faster than ever. We’ve observed that the youth, today, want to move away from mass platforms to a place where they can express more, within a closer set of friends. Hike is that destination,” he said in a release.

The app has some unique features like ‘Last Seen Privacy’ where one can choose to share their ‘Last Seen’ and ‘Status Updates’ with a chosen set of friends.  There are also localised sticker packs such as ‘Things Indians Say’ and a playful Bollywood pack.
Kavin said the company is working on “cool and innovative ideas” we’re working on in the pipeline for that segment.