Kik’s Messaging App Sold, Kin Integration Still in the Works
- Even though the app was to be shut because of the U.S. SEC lawsuit, it will continue to operate under new ownership, the holding company MediaLab.
- The new owner will continue work on the Kin cryptocurrency integration, but will also enable ads on the platform.
Kik writing on an office window. Kik
Kik Interactive has sold its messaging app to a Santa Monica-based holding company, MediaLab, which operates Whisper, Datpiff and other apps, the company announced on 18 October.
According to the blog post, the new owner of the Kik messaging app is committed for the long term, saying that “we believe that Kik’s best days remain ahead of it”.
The company plans to raise revenue through the app by integrating ads on the platform, a move which the founder of the platform, Ted Livingston, has pushed back against in the past.
The company said:
“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.”
MediaLab has also stated that they are fans of the Kin token, and that they believe in its long term potential. Though not much else was said about it, the company did mention that it will be partnering up with Livingstone to work on the Kin integration, and that more news will follow in the future.
The announcement further stated that the firm is planning to reduce the number of bugs present on the app, remove spambots and unwanted messages, and make the platform faster and more reliable.
It will also heavily rely on user feedback when it comes to new features, and what needs to be fixed.
In September Livingston announced that the messaging app will be shutting down, and that the firm’s staff will be reduced to around 10% of what it was.
This decision was made mainly because of its battle with the U.S. SEC, which claimed that Kik violated securities law with its $100 million token offering in 2017.
Surprising many who thought that the messaging app was done for, Livingston announced the app is “here to stay” in a tweet on 13 October:
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Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. CoinDesk
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