Keep in mind Hike, The App That Once Challenged WhatsApp? It’s Shutting Down After 13 Years

Upgraded 13 September 2025 at 14:56 IST

Walking started as a messaging app, comparable to WhatsApp, however it could not complete effectively. It altered its organization to focus on video gaming, producing a brand-new platform called “Rush.”

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Keep in mind Hike, The App That Once Challenged WhatsApp? It’s Shutting Down After 13 Years|Image: Hike

Walking, the messaging and video gaming app, that made headings 13 years ago for its possible to beat WhatsApp, is disappearing permanently. Kavin Mittal, the creator of the app, in an e-mail to financiers, revealed that Hike is closing down totally, consisting of the United States company, mentioning India’s choice to prohibit genuine cash video gaming in the nation.

“After much reflection and speaking with a few of you, I’ve decided to wind down Hike operations completely,” Mittal composed in an e-mail seen by Entrackr.

Walking started as a messaging app, comparable to WhatsApp, however it could not contend effectively. It altered its company to focus on video gaming, developing a brand-new platform called “Rush.”

The brand-new video gaming company was really effective in a brief quantity of time, bring in a big user base in simply 4 years. The restriction on genuine cash video gaming in India substantially injured Hike’s company design. According to Mittal, this regulative modification decreased the business’s monetary runway, which is generally the quantity of time it might run with its existing funds, from 7 months to simply 4. Walking had a brand-new service in the United States that was revealing appealing outcomes. The monetary obstacle in India was so extreme that it made it unwise to continue.

Walking has $4 million staying in its balance sheet. This cash will initially be utilized to settle supplier expenses and worker severance. If there is any cash left over after paying all suppliers and workers, it will be gone back to financiers.

Mittal thinks that they were required to play a video game they didn’t wish to play, got stuck in it, and eventually lost. The restriction was the last signal that it was time to give up the video game.

“RMG was never ever the location. It was a way to show system economics and open the larger vision. We got locked into the Indian market in a tax/regulation fight,” he stated.