Indian messaging app offers payments in escalation with WhatsApp
India's homegrown messaging app, Hike, is considering introducing payments to its messaging platform to go head-to-head with rival and market leader Whatsapp. Payments via the platform "is going to happen sooner or later," according to founder and CEO Bharti Mittal. Hike has changed its timeline, and introduced an in-built camera, live filters and stories that can remain for 48 hours. "We want to be the first defacto choice on 4G...for us to win, Whatsapp will have to lose," Mittal said.

NEW DELHI: Hike is looking at introducing payments to its messaging platform, as it aims to become the default app choice for consumers using 4G data, upstaging market leader Whatsapp in India.India’s first homegrown messaging platform is banking on its changed timeline and in-built camera, popular features on rival chat apps like Snapchat and Whatsapp, to raise its user base and daily engagement levels, which are critical requirements before it begins monetising in its largest market.“Over time, it’s natural for us to have shopping, I would be lying in 2016 that we’re not going to do it. I can’t promise when but it’s (payments) going to happen sooner or later,” said Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder and CEO of Hike Messenger.“Payments will be an enabler for making purchases across micro-apps… end of next year you will see us talking much more about this side of the vision,” he added.The messaging app plans to integrate payments into the app, and will look at making the messenger as a platform for making purchases from the app, a model which has a lot of resemblance with WeChat “We want to be the first defacto choice on 4G,” Mittal added. Hike competes with Whatsapp, in the latter’s largest market with over 160 million users where it introduced video calling earlier this week.On Thursday, Hike rolled out a camera built into the app, live filters and stories, which would be erased after 48 hours.Hike, which has about 100 million users worldwide – 95% in India – will look at adding new features going forward, learning from WeChat and QQ chat apps owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent that lead a $175-million investment into Hike in August this year, along with Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn.Both WeChat and QQ that have over 1 billion and 800 million users respectively, in China, allow users to shop, transact and use partner services, but they address different audiences. WeChat caters to a demographic above 30 years, while QQ’s core target user in between 15-24 years.Mittal, who spent a week with the teams of both the apps in China post the investment round, intends to take the best from them yet make them relevant for the Indian audience, keeping in mind constraints of limited bandwidth and device costs.With 30% of the messenger app’s 95 million user base in India on 4G networks, and half of the base accessing the app on Wi-Fi and 4G combined, Mittal feels that focusing on the high-end data user will propel the usage of Hike, which will then trickle down to the masses.