A Rise That Once Rivaled WhatsApp
Launched in 2012, Hike Messenger quickly became India’s bold answer to WhatsApp. It captured the imagination of young users with features like stickers, hidden chats, and localized design. At its peak, Hike boasted more than 40 million monthly active users, a staggering figure that positioned it as a serious contender in the messaging space.
The Shift To Gaming And Web3
When consumer habits changed and WhatsApp dominated the Indian market, Hike pivoted in 2021 to real money gaming with the launch of Rush. The platform offered 14 competitive games with cash prizes and even experimented with Web3 features like digital ownership and play to earn mechanics. Within four years Rush scaled to over 10 million users and generated 500 million dollars in gross revenue.
The Regulatory Roadblock
The turning point came with India’s 2023 ban on online real money gaming. What had once been Hike’s biggest growth engine suddenly became its biggest hurdle. Founder and CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal admitted that while the US business showed promise, scaling globally would have required a complete reset. He called it a path not worth the capital and time.
A Founder Looks Ahead
In a heartfelt note titled Closing a Chapter Opening a New One, Mittal reflected that real money gaming was never meant to be the final destination but rather a testing ground for business models. He now plans to shift his focus to transformative areas like artificial intelligence breakthroughs in energy and what he describes as mastery of the self. His vision is of a future where intelligence is always accessible energy is abundant and human willpower knows no limit.
Lessons From The Journey
Despite its shutdown, Hike’s story is far from a failure. It represents a bold experiment in building a homegrown challenger brand in India’s fast changing digital ecosystem. It also underlines the importance of timing market selection and regulatory clarity in shaping the destiny of tech companies.
Hike may have ended its thirteen year run but its spirit of innovation remains alive in the ambitions of its founder and the lessons it leaves behind for the Indian startup ecosystem.
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