As per announcements from last month, it seemed like the company’s migration to Kin cryptocurrency would force Kik messenger to shut down soon. However, thanks to its acquisition by MediaLab, the Kik messenger will live on.
The announcement came via a blog post form Kik, which said:
Our first priority is to listen. We have some ideas (yes we want larger group sizes and the ability to remove inactive group admins too) but we don’t pretend to know everything or have all the answers. In fact, we’re counting on all of you to help point us in the right direction.
MediaLab further added that they will continue to focus on the basics for the next few months, prioritizing on enhancing reliability and performance of the app by removing bugs and improving group settings.
The initial shutdown of the app was instigated by the company’s inclination towards the Kin cryptocurrency, which faced inquiry from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. On the subject, MediaLab has said that they will expand Kin integration in the Kik app.
The company said:
We are fans of Kin and believe in its long term potential. We are excited to further partner with Ted and his team on expanding the Kin integration and have plans to further support the project. We’ll have more to share on that front soon.
Last month, Kik confirmed that they will have to lay off almost 100 employees because of the shutdown of Kik Messenger. Its unclear if these firings have actually taken place and whether the acquisition will have any effect on employees and the company’s previous plans.
MediaLab has also confirmed that they will roll out ads to the service soon:
We believe that Kik’s best days remain ahead of it. As part of that long term commitment, we need to ensure that we’re able to cover our expenses. So over the coming weeks we’ll be introducing ads to the service. While we know that some of you may not love that idea we plan to do it in a way that it is non-intrusive, and in no way takes away from what makes Kik great.
Kik messenger will continue to be available on App Store for free, and is not going away anywhere, anytime soon.
