The Kik registration process does not request or require the entry of a phone number (although the user has the option to enter one ), unlike some other messaging services that require a user to provide a functioning mobile phone number. To register for the Kik service, a user must enter a first and last name, e-mail address, and birth date (which must show that the user is at least 13 years old ), and select a username. Features Ī main attraction of Kik that differentiates it from other messaging apps is its anonymity. However this decision was later reversed and in October 2019, Medialab acquired Kik Messenger. In September 2019, Kik's CEO and founder Ted Livingston, announced in a blog post that Kik Messenger would be shut down on 19 October 2019, with over 100 employees laid off. It offers different ways of earning and spending the Kin coin natively for example, a user can do simple surveys to earn Kin and spend it on digital goods like gift cards. In July 2018, the Kin Foundation released the Kinit beta app on the Google Play store, restricted to US residents only. In June 2018, the Kin Coin was officially released on the Kik platform in Beta. As of 23 January 2018, neither the developers nor Microsoft have provided a statement or an explanation on the removal of the app.
In November 2017, Kik Messenger was silently removed from the Windows Store. In this crowd sale, they sold "Kin" digital tokens to the contributors. In 2017 Kik decided against more VC funding, instead raising nearly $100 million in a high-profile initial coin offering (ICO) on the Ethereum blockchain. Company CEO Ted Livingston stated Kik's aspirations to become "the WeChat of the West" and said that attracting younger users was an important part of the company's strategy. The investment earned the company a billion dollar valuation. On August 16, 2015, Kik received a $50 million investment from Chinese Internet giant Tencent, the parent company of the popular Chinese messaging service WeChat. By this time, Kik had raised a total of $70.5 million. The funding was from Valiant Capital Partners, Millennium Technology Value Partners, and SV Angel.
In November 2014, Kik announced a $38.3 million Series C funding round and its first acquisition, buying GIF Messenger "Relay". In October 2013, the companies settled the lawsuit, with the terms undisclosed. RIM also sued Kik Interactive for patent infringement and misuse of trademarks.
On November 24, 2010, Research In Motion (RIM) removed Kik Messenger from BlackBerry App World and limited the functionality of the software for its users. Within 15 days of its release, Kik Messenger reached one million user registrations, with Twitter being credited as a catalyst for the new application's popularity.
Kik Messenger is the first app developed by Kik Interactive, and was released on October 19, 2010. Kik Interactive was founded in 2009 by a group of students from the University of Waterloo in Canada who wished to create new technologies for use on mobile smartphones.
Kik was originally intended to be a music-sharing app before transitioning to messaging, briefly offering users the ability to send a limited number of SMS text messages directly from the application. This information, as well as "reported" conversations, are regularly surrendered upon request by law enforcement organizations, sometimes without the need for a court order. However, the application does not employ end-to-end encryption, and the company also logs user IP addresses, which could be used to determine the user's ISP and approximate location. Kik is known for its features preserving users' anonymity, such as allowing users to register without the need to provide a telephone number or valid email address. It uses a smartphone's data plan or Wi-Fi to transmit and receive messages, photos, videos, sketches, mobile web pages, and other content after users register a username.
Kik Messenger, commonly called Kik, is a freeware instant messaging mobile app from the Canadian company Kik Interactive, available free of charge on iOS and Android operating systems.