Home-grown instant messaging application Hike on Tuesday forayed into the digital payments business with the introduction of the latest version of its application.
The firm has partnered with Yes Bank to enable UPI transfers and digital wallet services from its messenger.
“Hike 5.0 is the biggest update we’ve released in the history of Hike…We have been thinking about payments for a while now, a year-and-a-half almost… the timing is right in terms of the scale we have,” Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder and CEO, Hike Messenger said.
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Whatsapp plan
Over 10 crore Hike Messenger users will be able to transfer money using the digital Wallet or directly to banks using UPI, pay mobile bills and recharge from the platform itself. The introduction comes ahead of rival WhatsApp’s entry into digital payment expected later this year. Whatsapp, which counts India among its largest market, has about 20 crore users in the country.
“We have also introduced something called “blue packets” which brings expressions such as thank you, flying kiss to money…We really believe that payments is an extension of your daily life,” Mr. Mittal said.
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‘Blue Packets’ are specially designed digital envelopes that users can insert money into and send to their friends with a personalised message.
Tencent, which is an investor in Hike, offers similar services in China through WeChat messaging application.
‘Revenue stage’
The introduction of the service, Mr Mittal said, lays the “foundation for revenue stage” for the start-up unveiled in December 2012. “There are four stages — engagement, growth, revenue and profitability. We are at the growth stage.”
Hike till now has raised more than $250 million. Its investors include Tencent Holdings and Foxconn Technology Group.
Mr. Mittal added that with the new update, the size of the application has also been reduced to 25MB, while 128-bit SSL encryption has been added to ensure that communication is completely encrypted.