Hike Messenger has announced that its users now exchange over 1 billion messages per day, or over 30 billion per month. According to the company, this number has grown by 50% in the span of the last 3 months, after it reported 20 billion messages monthly in August. The company grew significantly faster this quarter, as it had reported reaching the 10 billion messages in September last year, taking another 11 months to reach 20 billion. It took over 2 years for the company to reach the 10 billion messages mark since its launch in July 2012. According to the company, it has been updating its app with new features over the last few months, leading to an upsurge in usage. As of now, Hike claims to have crossed 70 million users in October this year. It mentions that on an average, each user spends over 140 minutes per week using the messenger, with 90% of its users being under the age of 25 and residing in India. The company’s competitor WhatsApp claimed to have hit 900 monthly active users worldwide in September and in January this year, it claimed that its users were sending over 30 billion messages every day. Viber claimed to have crossed 40 million registered users in India in April this year. Other developments at Hike: - In October, Hike introduced a new feature called Hike Direct, allowing users to send messages off grid, i.e. without the use of telecom networks or an active Internet connection.…
