GigaOM » mobile messaging

Kik raises $19.5M to continue waging its messaging war

Kevin Fitchard — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:04:33 +0000

Kik Interactive, the over-the-top communications startup that makes the popular Kik Messenger app, has raised a $19.5 million Series B funding round, led by new investor Foundation Capital, and added Foundation partner Anamitra Banerji to its board. Benarji was Twitter’s 30th employee and first product manager, so he knows a bit about building disruptive communications apps.

Kik has been on a bit of a tear recently. After a year of inaction in the increasingly cutthroat market for OTT messaging apps, in November Kik launched a new update called Cards, which introduced HTML5-based mini-apps into its service and took advantage of its growing network of users. Since then Kik’s rate of growth has doubled from 100,000 to 200,000 new installs per day and its total customer base has grown from 30 million to 50 million registered users, the company said. Those customers have downloaded about 25 million of the card mini-apps, Kik said.

Banerji said the added functionality evolves Kik from just another OTT text upstart to a social communications platform. “There are similarities between Kik and Twitter when it comes to growth, engagement and vision,” Banerji said in a statement.

Based in Waterloo, Canada, the company is in a very crowded market where multiple dozens of competing messaging apps vie to lure consumers away from SMS into their private their networks. WhatsApp is the undisputed king of those apps, but there are numerous others, ranging from Pinger to Vibe to TextMe, all offering a slightly different set of communications features to distinguish themselves.

Kik raised an $8 million round in 2011 from Union Square Ventures, RRE Ventures and Spark Capital. All three of those investors participated in its Series B.

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Rumor Mill: Google’s next big acquisition could be mobile messenger WhatsApp

Kevin Fitchard — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:51:55 +0000

Google already has numerous peer-to-peer messaging and communications products, but it may not be opposed to buying another. According to Digital Trends, Google is haggling with breakout mobile messaging star WhatsApp over its acquisition price.

The site’s sources claim WhatsApp is apparently in a strong negotiating position, bargaining up a prospective deal to near $1 billion. Digital Trends only cited an unnamed inside source, so we’ll have to wait to see if anything comes of it.

WhatsApp tried to quashed that rumor pretty quickly. Speaking to AllThingsD late Monday, WhatsApp business development head Neeraj Arora said the messaging company is not in any sales discussions with Google.

Why would Google want WhatsApp? Well, it probably doesn’t need the technology. The company has already built cross-platform communications apps that provide the same intrinsic service as WhatsApp and other mobile over-the-top communications apps. But Google has admitted in the past that it’s done a poor job servicing its messaging users, and recently it’s been focusing more attention on the space, merging its Talk, Messenger and Hangouts apps into a single service.

But in the fast-paced world of peer-to-peer communications, the spoils go to those who build the biggest network. Google has got to be impressed by just how big WhatsApp has gotten in the last few years. WhatsApp doesn’t release specific numbers, but in November, App Annie found that WhatsApp was the top paid in 119 countries — including the U.S. — in Apple’s iTunes App Store. WhatsApp Messenger has also racked up more than 100 million Android installs. What makes WhatsApp even more intriguing is that it charges by the download (though the fee is only 99 cents) — it’s growing by leaps in bounds in a market where the software typically comes free.

If Google is interested in WhatsApp, it could be making the same calculation as Facebook when it bought Instagram for $1 billion. While Facebook could have developed its own image-filter and sharing app, Instagram was already well on its way to becoming the dominant photo-based social network on mobile. Google may not want to risk WhatsApp eating its lunch in the exploding OTT mobile messaging market — or worse, see it bought by a competitor.

This post was updated on Tuesday at 10:30 AM, adding comments WhatsApp VP Neeraj Arora’s comments to AllThingsD.

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Forecast: the converged mobile messaging market

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 15:45:50 +0000

The traditional mobile-messaging value chain is changing as upstart over-the-top (OTT) players upend mobile operators’ highly profitable SMS business. The emergence of virtual phone numbers presents opportunities for IP-based messaging players to compete and cooperate with carriers, adding interoperability to their services. We forecast there will be 27.7 trillion messages by 2016. We expect most of the growth in messaging traffic will come from IP-based messaging services, which will account for 60 percent of messaging traffic. Successful carriers will embrace this new technology and use it to extend the value they are best-positioned to provide: reliability and scalability.

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Facebook opens up Messenger app to non-Facebook users

Ryan Kim — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 13:57:48 +0000

Facebook is allowing non-facebook users to use its Messenger app, marking the first time it’s not requiring a Facebook account for one of its apps. Starting with the Messenger for Android app, users will be able to sign-up with just their phone number to send and exchange messages.

It sounds like Facebook will first make this available to Android users first in India, Australia, Indonesia, Venezuela, and South Africa before it goes fully international. Facebook for iOS will also soon get the same open access but the exact timing isn’t being announced.

The move will help Facebook appeal to a wider audience of users, many of whom may not be ready to become Facebook users. It also helps position Messenger as a better competitor to SMS, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary, and other third-party messaging services like WhatsApp, which only requires a phone number to sign up. Coincidentally, Facebook was rumored to be looking at acquiring WhatsApp, though it appears the two aren’t negotiating.

Facebook may be looking at this as a way to go after users who have been attracted to RIM’s BBM or WhatsApp. Or it could be an opportunity to introduce the Facebook brand to new users and gradually pull them into a regular account. Facebook Messenger for Android has more than 50 million downloads but that still puts it behind WhatsApp, who just passed 100 million Android downloads.

I think it’s smart for Facebook to keep innovating on messaging. In Asia, messaging services like KakaoTalk, Line and Weixin are building huge communities of users, who all use those apps more like social networking services. That is where Facebook could eventually see a lot of competition: through a mobile-first social app that uses messaging as a starting point. For these Asian competitors, the more they grow, the more they can go head-to-head with Facebook, which doesn’t have a great history in mobile.

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OS X code suggests iMessage could come to iChat

Darrell Etherington — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:06:53 +0000

It seemed like a no-brainer when Apple first unveiled iMessage for iOS devices: Why not build it into OS X, too? Well, turns out we may soon see iMessage work across nearly all Apple hardware, if new code discovered in Lion’s iChat (via MacRumors) is any indication.

For those who haven’t been following iOS 5, iMessage is an instant messaging service that works a lot like texting and MMS, but with added features like delivery and read receipts, and without the need for a texting plan from your cellular service provider. It will be available automatically for all iPhones, iPod touches and iPads that can run iOS 5, and you can receive messages at the email address of your choosing.

That means that when I receive a text from another iMessage user, it’ll show up on my iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, so that I can respond with whatever device happens to be closest. The catch is that only iOS users can play; iMessage isn’t cross-platform, and so far doesn’t extend to Apple’s desktop operating system, OS X. But uncovered in Lion’s iChat are two new unused lines of code that suggest we may see that change soon.

Specifically, the code makes reference to “timeDelivered” and “timeRead” fields, yet iChat doesn’t currently support either delivered or read receipts. iMessage, on the other hand, does. With OS X support, you could theoretically receive iMessages on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Mac, making it even easier to read and respond wherever you happen to be working.

OS X support for iMessage is a logical next step, and one which I pointed out as a notable omission back when the service was first announced. User experience design firm teehan+lax posted an interesting conceptual look at how iMessage on the Mac might work, but simple iChat integration makes even more sense, since the iOS messaging app is based on the same UI to begin with.

FaceTime made the leap from mobile to desktop, and it seems unlikely Apple would have failed to notice the potential in iMessage doing the same. Let’s hope this makes the leap from small to big screen soon, like ideally right around when iOS 5 drops.

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How carriers can innovate in the superphone era

Colin Gibbs — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 20:00:51 +0000

Carriers are struggling to address the gap between mobile data usage and revenues even as their networks approach capacity. Here’s how they can innovate to better monetize in the era of the superphone.

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Pinger builds a bridge between IM and SMS

Colleen Taylor — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:18:14 +0000

Pinger, a San Jose, Calif.-based startup that initially dealt in web-based voice messaging, has launched a free service for sending texts over a web browser. The new feature, dubbed Textfree Web, looks to bridge the gap between traditional SMS and the quickly growing mobile messaging market.

Pinger’s new product allows users to select a local U.S. phone number and use it to send and receive texts to other mobile numbers online. Textfree Web allows users to send messages to mobile numbers from the U.S., as well as 18 other countries, for free. Users can also receive unlimited photo messages via Textfree Web. Textfree Web can be used on any computer or device with Flash support.

Pinger’s product launch, which blends mobile instant messaging (IM) and SMS texting, looks to be very well-timed to larger industry trends. According to a new report released today by Juniper Research, mobile IM is on a startlingly upward trajectory, and mobile IM users are expected to exceed 1.3 billion within five years. That represents a tripling of the mobile IM user base from last year, the report said.

The mobile IM boom is expected to be driven by the arrival of new services such as Apple’s iMessage and the growth of existing ones. But Juniper says mobile IM will by no means supplant the SMS market. “With SMS I know I can reach almost any handset in the world, if I have its number,” Juniper Research’s Daniel Ashdown says in a press release regarding the mobile messaging report. “While IM services have some advantages, such as real-time communication and apparent absence of cost, the market is fragmented by different services which cannot communicate with each other.”

No matter what metrics you look at, it’s clear people are communicating more than ever before online and via their mobile devices. Bringing the disparate communication methods closer together is a tall order — but Pinger seems to be up for the task.

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Messaging App Kik Pulls in $8M As It Expands To Groups

Ryan Kim — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:37:08 +0000

The mobile messaging space, already hot with a number of start-ups on a roll and last week’s purchase of Beluga by Facebook, got a little hotter today with news that Kik has raised $8 million from Union Square Ventures, RRE Ventures and Spark Capital. The Waterloo-based start-up, which was founded in the shadows of Research in Motion, will use the money to expand its development efforts and add to its head count. Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures and RRE Ventures’ Adam Ludwin will join Kik’s board.

The Series A funding by some well respected names shows there’s little slow up in the mobile messaging space. In fact, things are accelerating as companies gear up for South By Southwest, which is turning into a major showcase for group messaging apps, just like it highlighted the check-in location market last year. My colleague Darrell had a good round up of some of the group messaging apps.

Kik joins GroupMe, FastSociety, PingChat, TextPlus and others along with new start-ups like Ditto and Yobongo, which launched last week. And then there’s Beluga, which is now owned by Facebook, but will also be showing off new features at SXSW. RIM is also rumored to expanding its footprint in group messaging by possibly extending its BBM messaging client to other platforms. RIM, by the way, sued Kik for patent infringement last year, cutting off the app on the BlackBerry platform. Kik has denied the charges ~~and countersued~~. Despite the loss of the BlackBerry platform, Kik is up to 3.4 million uniquely registered users since launching in October.

Ted Livingston, CEO of Kik, said the space is hot right now because the smartphone helps address a need for more private network communications among friends, something Facebook and Twitter don’t currently address well. He expects Kik will hold its place among its competitors by emphasizing its speed of messaging, which it owes to its own architecture. It is also focusing on the way people naturally communicate. The company just announced it is adding group messaging to Kik for up to ten users. It is not forcing users to create groups, instead allowing them to just add members to existing conversations. Kik is also enabling photo sharing, but only with photos that have been taken during a conversation, to underscore real-time communications.

“We feel that mobile messaging is the next frontier of social,” Livingston said. “It’s a huge space and we think we’re at the front of it.”

Kik, which previously raises $1.6 million in Angel funding, has some great backers. But I wonder how this whole market will shake out. There are so many messaging apps right now, it’s hard to see how they will all survive. MG Siegler at TechCrunch called the onslaught of apps the App Wall, in which consumers ultimately get overwhelmed by the choices. Users don’t need half a dozen messaging apps. In fact, even if they opt for a messaging app over SMS at all, they’ll likely want to narrow it down to one, maybe two solutions. That will make it tough for smaller competitors to compete. And it makes you wonder how well Facebook will utilize its Beluga acquisition. If it can integrate it into its current messaging platform, it could put a big hurt on many competitors.

Still, I think it’s early days and the funding announcements by Kik and earlier by GroupMe suggest that we have a lot of growth ahead. The winners will have to move quickly but also figure out elegant ways to make their systems stand out in an ever more crowded field.

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