Hike sees 5 million downloads in India in 4 months

By Darshik Jariwala - April, 23rd 2013

Hike has seen more than 5 million downloads in India since its release back in December 2012, claims the company behind developing the application, Bharti Softbank.

Hike is quickly gaining popularity among the youth in India as a cross – platform mobile messaging service which works on 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi. It is seen as an alternative to WhatsApp which allows you to send and receive messages through internet. The feature, however, that makes Hike a better alternative to WhatsApp is, that it also allows you to send messages to people who are not on Hike, throughout the country. If the opposite person replies, you will receive the message on Hike. This feature is still only available in Indian region though.

On signing up, Hike provides about 200 messages every month which you can send to people not using hike or if they are not using a smartphone. Inviting people provides additional text messages you can send. Another added feature is that even people who use iPod and iPad (Wi-Fi only) are also able to download and use Hike, whereas WhatsApp only supports iPhone and iPad (Wi-Fi + 3G) on iOS devices.

Hike also updated its application to version 2.0 to add social networking features like posting a status which is visible to your circle, a new notification center and a revamped and improved user interface. The app is currently available for all Apple iOS devices, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia Series S40. You will be surprised to find out that in India; more than 30 percent of users are still using Nokia phones with Series S40 operating system. The app for Series S60 devices is still in development stages and so is the app for Blackberry devices.

The head of product and strategy at Bharti Softbank, Kavin Bharti Mittal said, “Free Hike SMS is proving to be extremely popular in a country like India where not everyone in a group of friends has access to a data-enabled smartphone.” No wonder the app has received overall a very positive review in India. Hike currently has a 4 star rating in Apple Store & Windows Phone marketplace and 4.5 star rating Google Play Store. You may download the app for your device from here.

Source: ZDnet

Photo Credit – Håkan Dahlström/Flickr