SoftBank-backed Hike shuts down, vanishes from app stores in India

Hike, the messaging app backed by SoftBank Group Corp. that aimed to compete against WhatsApp in the world’s second-most populous country, shut down and vanished from app stores Monday.

The startup valued at $1.4 billion in a 2016 funding round announced its app was going off the air earlier this month without explanation. The app started by billionaire-family scion Kavin Bharti Mittal has failed over several years to displace Facebook Inc.’s rival app as India’s go-to venue for social media and mobile communications. The country remains WhatsApp’s largest market globally.

Hike, backed also by Chinese WeChat-operator Tencent Holdings Ltd., has