Hike Messenger has rolled out video calling to its Android users and expects to extend this to iOS users next week in the near future. Hike had apparently rolled out video calling as a beta last month to 100,000 users and says that video calling will work even in low network conditions including 2G networks. Hike will also offer a ‘live caller preview’ of the user who’s calling before the other user can answer the call. Note that in January this year, Hike claimed that it crossed 100 million users and of which 95% are India based, and 90% are below 30 years of age. Hike users, according to the company, spend 120 minutes on the app and exchange 40 billion messages monthly. Hike’s funding In August, Hike raised $175 million from China’s Tencent and Foxconn in a series D round of funding which valued it at $1.4 billion. With this, Hike has raised over $261 million in funding. Earlier in the year, the company raised an undisclosed amount of funding from multiple investors. Features on Hike - As of now, Hike also offers audio calling for groups of up to 100 people, which was introduced in September last year. In the same month, it also started aggregating Hindi news stories. The company had launched News a month before that where it would aggregate stories from leading English dailies. - Last October, Hike introduced Hike Direct which allowed users to send messages off grid, i.e. without the use of telecom networks…
