Kavin Bharti Mittal , chief executive of two-year-old messaging company Hike Ltd , happens to be the son of Sunil Bharti Mittal —an entrepreneur who sold bicycle parts, yarn and power generators before creating Bharti Airtel Ltd , India’s largest telecom services provider.
The mobile messaging market is “a tough and highly competitive market, and differentiation is hard to achieve”, according to Sanchit Gogia, chief analyst and chief executive of Greyhound Research.
“Having said that, clear gaps around the need to support vernacular languages exist. While Hindi is already supported, initiatives like Google Android One with native support for multiple Indian languages and the content ecosystem will give the messaging market a major boost.”
Gogia said that the quoted 35 million user base isn’t necessarily the active user base. “The correct way to measure adoption is to map active users in the last 30 days. Most importantly, the success of these platforms is contingent on the minimum user base that they achieve over time—WhatsApp has managed to accrue a global critical mass. All other similar platforms including Hike do not enjoy this kind of a user base,” he said.
Being Sunil Mittal’s son will make things a bit easy for Kavin Mittal but will “not guarantee success”, said Gogia.
To read the Full Article, click here: Mint