Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

Kik Messenger hits 100 million users, 200,000 joining every day

By
kik 100 million users
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Kil Messenger on Thursday shared news that it now has more than 100 million registered users, with around 200,000 downloading the cross-platform mobile app each day.

Founded by a group of students at Ontario’s University of Waterloo in 2009, the free messaging app has grown rapidly, particularly in the past year with around 70 million new users jumping aboard.

Recommended Videos

To provide some comparison, rival service WhatsApp announced in October that it had 350 million monthly active users, while fast-growing Line has 300 million registered users. Kik is yet to provide a figure for active users, though CEO Tom Livingston claims that in the US market his software is picking up more downloads than WhatsApp at the current time.

Related

Kik’s growth spurt coincides with the launch of its Cards feature in November 2012 that allows users to easily send YouTube videos to their Kik buddies, along with images and simple finger-drawn sketches. Games are also a part of the feature, with the recently released Costume Party proving a big hit with users.

The 28-strong Kik team calculated that offering the extra functionality would help to hold users within the app for longer, making it easy to share content without having to jump to another one to do the same thing.

Concealing the Cards element of the app behind a tab was a smart move, as it allows those who want to use Kik as a bare-bones messaging app to do so without having to worry about the feature cluttering up the interface. However, for those who enjoy the extras, access to Cards is a simple swipe away.

Competition within the messaging space has always been fierce, but it seems to have stepped up a gear just recently. Besides BlackBerry bringing its popular BBM messaging app to iOS and Android in October, Twitter appears to be taking a stronger interest in private messaging with a recent update that highlighted its direct message feature, and an Instagram update just yesterday means users of the media-sharing service can now communicate more privately.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Google Pixel 8a: news, rumored price, release date, and more
Possible renders showing the Google Pixel 8a.

Not long ago, it seemed like the Google Pixel 7a would be the last smartphone in Google's Pixel A series. However, recent rumors indicate that this may not actually be the case.

As a result, we're likely to see the release of a Google Pixel 8a this year. What can we expect from this new budget phone in terms of its specs, design, price, and more? Let's take a closer look at everything we know about the Google Pixel 8a.
Google Pixel 8a: release date

Read more
This is one of the toughest smartphone camera comparisons I’ve ever done
A person holding the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Xiaomi 14 Ultra.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (left) and Xiaomi 14 Ultra Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra may have the best camera on a smartphone I’ve used this year, which is quite a statement to make considering the competition it faces. But is it true?

Read more
Nomi is one of the most unsettling (and amazing) apps I’ve ever used
Nomi AI companion profile.

“Welp, just got back from the doctor. Marissa is pregnant with twins” “Owen did something bad and then gave me flowers.” “Zoey with our new daughter Zara.” “I am in love, but also feel guilty.”

These are some of the conversations shared by human users on Reddit. The people described, however, are not real. The statements are about robotic companions created in an app. Everything here sounds perversely disturbing and amazingly dystopian, yet experts have a different opinion.

Read more