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Startups raise with soul purpose. Even its outcome is to solve existing hurdles in society. Entrepreneurs are the main pillar of any startup. Then his vision turns into a business idea, finally a startup.
But every startup won’t be successful. In India, 10 out of 6 startups won’t survive for at least two years. Even Hike messenger is one such example.
Successful startups are very few in India. Because it requires real-time strategies are required. So, Hike Messenger failure startup will be the best way to learn the mistakes.
Hike
Back in early 2010, messaging platforms have a lot of traction. But there were no Indian startups to cater to the audience.
Facebook and Whatsapp were the main messaging platforms in India. But in 2012, Hike is a messaging app that came into the market.
Now, messaging is great fun for all. So, everyone keeps on experimenting with different applications. Then users started to stick on to the Hike Messenger platform for chatting.
Once, Hike Messenger was giving a tough competition to WhatsApp in India. Kavin Bharti Mittal was the founder of Hike. He bought frequent innovations in the app to attract users.
Then Hike Messenger user base skyrocketed up to 35 million. Even Hike became a unicorn in 2016 crossing the valuation of $1 billion. Besides, the application gained momentum with the Indian audience.
Even, Hike Messenger raise over 250 million one of its funding round. But, now there is Hike messenger in no more. Hike platforms are completely shut down in India. As the company completely shuts its operation by January 14, 2021.
Hike Messenger Failure startup story will be a great learning for budding entrepreneurs. Here we are going to unveil the failures of Hike Messenger.
Also Read: Whatsapp success story
Reasons for the Hike Messenger failure
Here are some of the key reasons for the failures of the Hike Messenger startup
Neglecting the Majority of the users
Hike, a messaging platform, always tries to attract teenagers into their platforms. To achieve this goal, the team had made trendy and attractive UI for the app.
Even Hike also went on to integrate some of the cool features in the app. Like users can able to send stickers and express their feeling. Subsequently, the stickers were creating a lot of buzz in the market.
Besides, stickers come with the latest trends to attract teenagers’ attention. The stickers were inclusive of the latest movies names, stars, and many more. Even the app had a super cool feature of Chat with Natasha.
These all features made the teenagers stick on to the platforms. Here is one of the major mistakes committed, the platform did not cater to the huge audience.
As messaging is a common way of communication for all ages. But Hike focuses to attract a smaller number of teenagers.
Any successful startup will aim to help and cater to a larger audience and solve the existing problem. But Hike did not do follow the success rule.
Hence, it had neglected the majority of the users onboarding to their platforms. Even they showed the least sign to focus out of the box.
Also Read: Wow Momo Startup Story
Too many features in Hike messenger
Fewer features won’t confuse the users to deal with the app. Initially, Hike came into the market as a free messaging application. Later the Hike went on to integrate so many features into the platform.
Hike with integration with Cricbuzz. As Cricbuzz was an online cricket score rendering application. Where Hike integrates and confuses the users. A messaging won’t need the integration of such features.
Then the platforms integrate with news feed applications. For the instance, the Hike was looking online new site. Even there is no need for the news on the app.
Further, the hike has introduced users to gaming features. Apart, Hike had some interesting games. But gradually hike, was losing its vision and mission of the application.
Even Hike came with the payment services as well. Now, users can easily transfer money from the Hike. In this way, Hike went on to add unnecessary features to the platforms.
So, users were confused about using the Hike app. Because when users have too many options to use then users won’t try and leave the platform.
Hike did not have USP (Unique selling point) due to too many features. Any successful company, only focus one specific thing and keep on improving according to the requirement of the users.
Facebook is known for its socializing features. Where Instagram is known for its photo and vides sharing features. But Hike did not have any such unique feature.
Revenue Model of Hike messenger
Revenue for any startup is like the hope of surviving in the future. Even it also gives scope and demand in the present scenario.
But Hike messenger could not able to monetize its platform. Because it was not creating demand in any of the features.
So, it miserably struggling under losses. As the losses start to heap up year on year.
Large Application size
Before the JIO revolution, users were installing the app with light features. So it won’t consume much data and space of the phone.
But Hike Messenger was a too-large size application with too many features. So, users were preferring Whatsapp as the alternative for messaging.
This is one of the reasons for the failure of the Hike app in the market. Soon there was declination from 35 million users to 2 million hike users.
In this way, Hike went on to lose its customer base from the market. So, it is essential to understand the need of customers. Startups have to focus to solve specific problems in society.
Initially, there was a good team of 150 employees. To create more use cases, the Hike platform did not hire good and talented employees in the end. So, there was no coordination and results were not up to the mark.
Expanding the services is depend on the end users’ requirements. So startups have to take great concern on the present trend. Then the company can build a successful product in the market. So, any startup should not provide unnecessary features to the users.
Hike Messenger Failure startup story is great learning for budding entrepreneurs in the future.