Bharti SoftBank (BSB) Thursday said it will invest $7
million (about Rs 37 crore) in its messaging application ‘hike’ that recently
crossed five million users.
"BSB, a joint-venture between Bharti Enterprises
and SoftBank Corporation, purposeful on the mobile-internet space, issued $7
million fresh investment in Hike, its free messaging app," the company
said in a statement.
The company said Hike crossed the 5 million users in just
four months after its released on December 12 last year which makes it one of
the fastest emergent free mobile applications worldwide.
"The traction for hike has been phenomenal, particularly
in such a competitive market. This new round of investment is an endorsement,
of the great work put in by the entire team," BSB Director Mike Kayamori
said.
The company has also introduced an update called hike
2.0, which allows users to post updates about what they are up to or what they
are thinking in real-time to their close friends only.
The app allows users to send free SMS, even to contacts
who do not have ‘hike’ on their handsets.
“What’s unique about hike is its seamless integration
between instant messaging and SMS. This is a very powerful feature particularly
in a market like India where more than 90 per cent of the 900 million strong
mobile populations is on feature phones,” it added.
The company said 60 percent of hike’s user base comes
from India and the rest global led by Middle East and Europe.
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