New Delhi: Kavin Bharti Mittal, the founder of Hike and the son of the chairman of Bharti Airtel, Sunil Bharti Mittal, has announced that his startup will be completely shut down after 13 years. It was decided upon after India banned real-money gaming (RMG), a business Hike had transitioned into on its platform Rush. Mittal, in a Substack post, described the decision as a hard choice and said that regulatory issues were the most important factor in operations terminations.
Hike is a messaging app, founded in 2012 as a competitor to WhatsApp, which initially had more than 40 million monthly active users. However, the company stopped its messaging service in 2021 and turned to gaming. Rush had 14 mobile games that had cash payouts and Web3 functionality such as digital ownership. The business could not sustain itself despite its ability to generate in excess of 500 million in gross revenue and its ability to draw in a user base of more than 10 million.
From messaging to gaming pivot
The company was to be tested in India first, and then it would expand to other nations. But Mittal indicated that the regulatory environment had put Hike into a framework that could not grow internationally without an expensive reset. Although Rush had already begun operations in the US with initial indications of momentum, the management had concluded that a global push was not worth the risk.
Investor fallout and industry impact
Hike had included significant investors like SoftBank, Tencent, Tiger Global, Foxconn, Polygon, and Tribe Capital, among other influential investors and significant backers, including Zynga founder Mark Pincus. Its shutdown comes after a number of Indian gaming startups, such as MPL and Games24x7, among others, are being laid off under the new rules.
What’s next for Mittal?
Mittal affirmed that he now works on new opportunities, namely artificial intelligence, clean energy, and human potential. It is simultaneously a disappointment and a bitter blow, he said, but as Hike closes, it is the lessons that will guide his next chapter.