Thursday, July 31, 2014

Hike messenger, a big threat to Whatsapp

Everyone knows Whatsapp is making a killing with the no of users under their umbrella. And as Facebook, it is a social network brand name which is getting famous day by day. But wait... there is a threat. Its named Hike.

For those who don't know what is "Hike"??? .Everyone is familiar with word hike, and love it when it is mentioned with their job pay :)

Hike is a messenger, Hike Messenger to be precise. Which is very active in India( will come to that later on). But Whatsapp rules India as of now.

Then why is Hike a threat to Whatsapp? Lets get some Tech food for our brains. Lets Chow.

hike-threat-whatsapp
Hike tops app store above Whatsapp & Facebook

1. Hike is very focused on its Target market.

    The target market is India as of now, as it has a large mobile customer base. Focusing on a specific segment of the market is a good sign of any key player, It helps the product to mold correctly and improve steadily before going for the big leap. By big leap I mean conquering the world market. Whatsapp isn't doing that as such. Remember the hullah created for not having a small smiley of the Indian flag, and later addition of that small smiley icon almost after a year ( that's almost ignoring the sentiments of a large customer base)

2. Hike has learned from others mistake.

   WeChat tried to create lot of buzz on Indian shores by lots of celebrity endorsements right from high paid Movie stars to Sportsperson but it couldn't bulge Whatsapp. Hike Team realized, its not endorsements but a kick ass product which will seal the deal for them.

3. Hike has better privacy features.

   This is very high on users agenda when they get on online messengers.
Users do care who sees or stalks them, if its their last seen or their profile pictures. Whatsapp was ignoring this suggestion from a long time. It has improved its privacy but not close to what Hike does.
Hike lets you manage privacy at a granular level. You can choose who sees your last seen on every user level eg: Tom sees my last seen but Jack doesn't.