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Kavin Bharti Mittal announces the shutdown of Hike Messenger after 13 years, citing challenges post India Ban.
Kavin Bharti launched Hike in 2012.
Bharti Airtel group scion Kavin Bharti Mittal has announced to wind down India’s messaging app, a competitor to WhatsApp, after its 13-year journey.
“After regrouping with our investors and the team, I’ve made the difficult decision to wind down Hike completely”, said Kavin Bharti Mittal in his Substack post.
Mittal further said that after India Ban, scaling globally of the messaging platform would require a full recap, which he called “not the best use of capital or time”. “For the first time in 13 years, my answer is no. Not for me, not for my team, and not for our investors,” Mittal added.
He said that US business, which was launched nine months ago, is performing well.
Sharing the 13-year journey in the post, Mittal said Hike Messenger reached 40M MAUs and became the 35th most loved consumer brand in India at its peak.
He said that with Rush, they built a new kind of Casual PvP gaming platform and scaled it to 10M users and $500M+ in gross revenue (CEA) in just 4 years.
Hike was launched in December 2012 by Kavin Bharti Mittal as India’s answer to WhatsApp, with the vision of creating a homegrown messaging platform tailored to Indian users. Backed by Bharti Enterprises and early investors like SoftBank, it quickly gained traction among the youth, crossing 100 million downloads within a few years.
“To everyone who has been part of this journey – our users, our team, our investors, and our community – thank you. As a CEO, you’re only as strong as your team, and I want to give a special shout-out to mine – an incredible group of people who gave this everything (Hike),” Mittal noted.
Hinting at his upcoming plans, Mittal said that he will help build the future, where willpower is infinite, energy is abundant, and intelligence is at our fingerprints. “This is the future I will help build — and it’s where I’ll be contributing in the decades to come. This new chapter will look very different from the last one,” Mittal added.
Varun Yadav is a Sub Editor at News18 Business Digital. He writes articles on markets, personal finance, technology, and more. He completed his post-graduation diploma in English Journalism from the Indian Inst…Read More
Varun Yadav is a Sub Editor at News18 Business Digital. He writes articles on markets, personal finance, technology, and more. He completed his post-graduation diploma in English Journalism from the Indian Inst… Read More
September 14, 2025, 09:54 IST
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