Hike to launch multiple apps this year

Mobile messaging platform Hike Thursday said it is looking at launching multiple apps in 2019 to meet a range of requirements of consumers.

"In 2019, we continue to double down on both social and content but we're going to do it with an evolved approach. We're going to do it across multiple apps. That means, in 2019, we're going to go from building a super app that encompasses everything, to multiple apps solving one thing really well," Hike Founder and Chief Executive Officer Kavin Bharti Mittal said in a statement.

The app was launched in December 2012 and acquired a user base of over 100 million in January 2016.

In August 2016, Hike raised its fourth round of funding of USD 175 million led by Tencent and Foxconn at a valuation of USD 1.4 billion.

Investors in Hike include Tencent, Foxconn, Tiger Global, Softbank and Bharti. Apart from these, some of the top tech veterans from the Silicon Valley have also invested in the company and are advisors.

"Moving to a multi-app strategy no longer restricts us to a specific segment of the market. This is going to allow us to explore different parts of the market," Mittal said.

These multiple apps will be designed by taking core parts of the Hike product and remoulding them into creating new apps, each delivering one service, the statement said.