Mobile chat application creator to host 'Hikeathon'

Home-grown chat application creator Hike Messenger is hosting 'Hikeathon', a two-day offline hack fest for engineers and mobile developers here from Saturday.

"The event will give a unique opportunity for hackers to think innovatively and find solutions on how to make the So-Lo-Mo (social-local-mobile) revolution a reality, especially in the context of messaging," Hike chief technology officer Rajat Bansal said in a statement here on Friday.

The 24-hour event is being organised on Saturday and Sunday in partnership with Venturesity, a peer learning and competition platform, which conducted hackathons for start-ups, e-commerce firms and large enterprises in the past.

About 1,000 engineers have registered for the event so far.

Three winning teams, to be selected on Sunday evening, will be awarded prizes of up to Rs.500,000 each and selected participants will be offered jobs at the Hike start-up.

"We are on a mission to bring India online, which will materialize we when hit 100 million users. All smart developers should build applications to connect the country," Bansal said.

The start-up is aiming at getting a billion people on the internet using a mobile device.

The participants will be given a unique problem set related to So-Lo-Mo and build their products in teams of two-four members.