Despite the messaging wars still being in its infancy, it was common to see other messaging apps like Kik and PingChat a few years ago. Nowadays despite WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, LINE, WeChat and many others dominating, Kik is still very much in the game and worth keeping an eye on .
Forget Snapchat and WhatsApp for a second – Kik is the dark horse of the Internet
A lot of people, of course, don’t believe in the mobile Web. Mark Zuckerberg has said Facebook’s biggest mistake was betting too much on HTML5. Many developers and users think that native applications provide a faster, smoother experience than can be found with Web apps. But Kik, which in April put the final pieces into place for its HTML5 platform, has created a super-charged mobile browser that uses cacheing and background downloading to provide a fluid user experience. That opens up the sort of monetization opportunities currently being exploited by WeChat, Line, and KakaoTalk – in-app purchases, payments, games, virtual items, brand relationships, ecommerce – but it places them in the context of the open Web, mostly free from the restrictions imposed by devices, app stores, or operating systems.
I’m particularly fond of this article on Kik that I read a few months back.
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