Hike Is Dead! What Led Once India's Only WhatsApp Rival to Shut Down Completely?

Hike is Dead! Once seen as the ultimate rival of US-backed WhatsApp messenger, 'Made-In-India' Hike, is now completely shut, announced the company's founder and CEO, Kavin Bharti Mittal on Saturday.

"After regrouping with our investors and the team, I've made the difficult decision to wind down Hike completely," read a post by Mittal on X on Saturday.

Hike Messenger grew popular among youngsters, with its regional language stickers, hidden chats, offline texts, and other features. Years after its launch, the application saw its user base grew, but unsustainable model forced its makers to announce Hike shutdown.

"The last 13 years have been immense. Hike Messenger reached 40M MAUs and became the 35th most loved consumer brand in India at its peak," added Mittal in his post.

Why Hike Shut Down Its Operations?

Kavin Bharti Mittal had announced Hike's global shutdown in August, 2025. The development came as part of the company's efforts to rebrand and restructure its operations.

"Lots of love for Hike recently. No surprise. We shut it down with 20M+ actives. Just because we're very good at something, doesn't mean we can win. Network effect too strong globally. Would have to be a China like situation for us to reconsider," stated Mittal earlier.
One of the key reasons behind Hike messenger's shutdown was the tough competition faced from apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. Developing in Indian market is difficult. As the market is emerging, billions of dollars are required to understand the evolving consumer behaviour, that too with little visibility on RoI, stated Mittal in a social media post.

Ban on Real Money Gaming Apps

The complete shutdown of Hike messenger has come days after the Indian government imposed a complete ban on real money gaming applications.

Hike initially launched as an instant messaging application, just like WhatsApp. But the company entered into the real-money gaming market, with the launch of its platform 'Rush'.

The platform offers casual games like carrom and ludo for cash prizes. While Hike messenger was already shut in 2021, Rush saw its user base grew over the years. The online gaming platform had over 10 million users and generated around $500 million of gross revenue during its four-year run, stated Mittal.

Renowned investors like Tiger Global, SoftBank, and Tencent backed Hike's early ambition. The company emerged as one of India's initial unicorns in 2016 and gained immediate popularity with its aim to take on WhatsApp with a youth-focused messaging app. The startup was reportedly valued at $.14 billion.