Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder and former chief executive of Hike, has spoken openly about why the homegrown messaging platform collapsed despite once enjoying immense popularity.
Hike was launched in 2012 as an Indian alternative to WhatsApp, offering features such as regional-language stickers, hidden chats, offline SMS, news updates and more. It became one of India’s earliest “unicorns” in 2016, valued at over $1 billion, and at its peak claimed more than 100 million users. However, by January 2021, the company announced that the service would be shut down altogether.
In a reply to a post on X (formerly Twitter), Mittal reflected on the platform’s trajectory and the challenges that ultimately led to its closure.
“The PM’s call for a sovereign social media app reminds me of Hike. Once an amazing Made in India platform, Hike was a fun, youth-driven alternative to WhatsApp. It had stickers in Indian languages, private chats, offline SMS, news and a host of other exciting features. Essentially a super app before the term became popular. At its peak, it hit 100M+ users and unicorn status. Yet it failed! Perhaps unable to match WhatsApp’s simplicity and network effect, or because it tried doing too much, leading to clutter and confusion," the post read.
“Lots of love for Hike recently. No surprise. We shut it down with 20M+ actives. Just because we’re very good at something, doesn’t mean we can win,” Mittal wrote.
He pointed to the overwhelming dominance of global players such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Facebook Messenger as a decisive factor.
“Network effect too strong globally. Would have to be a China-like situation for us to reconsider,” Mittal explained.
When one social media user suggested that WhatsApp’s dominance alone may not have been the reason for Hike’s decline, Mittal added that building a sustainable model in India had posed its own difficulties.
“No blame. Just is. Plus India is difficult to build a business model around messaging. Only recently emerging. Consumer behaviour takes time to evolve. Billions $ needed with little visibility on RoI,” he said.
"Network effect is a big thing. My friend used to work at Hike and he was so passionate about the product and really believed in it. Sadly Whatsapp was so strong at that time, that people didn’t move to hike even if they wanted to. And at that time there was no talk of Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India," a user wrote.
Another user remarked, "It's all about timing. Even Rocket Singh movie failed in late 2000s, which would've been a massive hit today. Because it was ahead of time, many people preferred WhatsApp for its simplicity at that time. Years later, people are happy to see all those features getting added to WhatsApp as a 'wow' factor."
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